Official enrollment for Missouri State University is up for the fall semester, with 23,838 students attending school there - a new system record.
Of those students, about 650 came from the central Missouri region, including 214 students from Cole County, 191 from Boone County, 63 from Callaway County, 57 from Moniteau County, 57 from Miller County and 45 from Osage County.
"Our goal is to make Missouri State the "university of choice' for students not only in Missouri, but throughout the Midwest and even nationally," said Clifton M. Smart III, MSU president, in a news release.
According to the official fall enrollment report, more than 2,690 freshmen enrolled, up 202 - 8.1 percent - during a year when Missouri saw a drop in the number of high school graduates. Their average ACT score was 24.
The university remains the second-largest in the state. The fall 2013 enrollment figures are based on the 20th day of classes, which the release said is the state's official enrollment census date.
At Linn State Technical College, the official census is taken in mid-October.
But, President Don Claycomb said Friday, they also take a first-day count of students - and 2013's 1,325 students was up almost 7 percent from last year's 1,240 students on the first day of classes.
Claycomb said Linn State attracts students from about 90 percent of Missouri's 114 counties and the city of St. Louis.
The largest contingent of students still come from Osage, Cole and Boone counties, he said.
Linn State also is "gradually increasing the number of students from other states," Claycomb said. "Our out-of-state tuition charge is comparable with Illinois' in-state tuition."
This year, 70 students came to the state-owned, two-year technical college from other states.
Lincoln University didn't respond Friday to a request for its enrollment numbers.