Delaware State University Nears 7,000 Students as Fall Enrollment Outpaces Last Year's Record

DOVER, Del. — As homecoming season begins, Delaware State University is closing in on a record enrollment of nearly 7,000 students, with headcount across all campuses and programs running ahead of where it stood at this point last year. The historically Black university is on pace to surpass last fall's record census of 6,623 when it certifies its Fall 2026 enrollment on October 31. Since 2020, when the University enrolled 5,027 students, enrollment has grown nearly 40 percent — one of the most striking growth stories among the nation's HBCUs.

As of this week, 6,990 students are registered across the University's Dover and Wilmington campuses, its online programs, and its international partnerships — including 6,370 on its U.S. campuses, roughly 10 percent more than at the same point a year ago. Final counts will come at census on October 31, after the University's second term start, additional online sessions (including the first cohorts of eHBCU, the national online consortium of HBCUs the University leads), and semester starts at its international locations.

Notably, the growth is being driven by students who are already enrolled. While new out-of-state freshman enrollment is down roughly a third from the same point last year, continuing undergraduates from Delaware and beyond are up 7 percent — the clearest measure that students who start at Delaware State are persisting toward their degrees. Graduate enrollment is up 5.6 percent, and continuing online graduate students are up nearly 40 percent, a historic high.

"The number I care most about is not how many students arrive — it's how many stay, and how many finish," said Tony Allen, President of Delaware State University. "Every one of these students came to change the trajectory of their lives — for themselves, their families and their communities.

At the heart of the University's "Delaware first" strategy is the INSPIRE Scholarship, a four-year, full-tuition award for Delaware high school graduates who enroll the fall after graduation, maintain a 2.75 GPA, complete ten hours of community service each semester, and file the FAFSA annually. Since 2010, more than 2,500 Delawareans have attended as INSPIRE Scholars. "I had offers from some of the most prestigious schools in the country. I chose Delaware State because it is an exceptional community of people who believe in me and are investing in me," said Jordan Perkins, a 2026 Sanford School graduate and INSPIRE Scholar in the Class of 2030. "That is the Delaware State University difference."

The University is also widening its K-12 pipeline. The number of Delaware high schoolers taking University courses for credit has nearly doubled to 582. The Williams School — the University's early college school — sends 63 percent of its graduates to Delaware State, while in Queens, the HBCU Early College Preparatory School (a partnership with New York City Public Schools) drew more than a thousand applications for its first hundred seats. Daveon Wisher, who attended the early college school, earned his degree at Delaware State, and now teaches English at The Williams School, said the impact has come full circle: "I just flourished and grew from the seeds that they had already planted."

The enrollment momentum reflects a stronger institution overall. Delaware State graduates earn a median of $57,700 early in their careers and $96,700 by mid-career, at a median undergraduate tuition of about $9,050 — roughly $15,000 below the national average for comparable institutions. In August, Forbes' first outcomes-based ranking of America's Top HBCUs placed the University tenth among public HBCUs and second for online programs. The University also recently won significant federal awards, including a nearly $10 million Department of Defense research award and a named partnership in the National Science Foundation's $21.5 million AI Institute for Human-AI Cooperation.

Founded in 1891, Delaware State University is a public, Carnegie-classified research HBCU in Dover, with students from 39 states and 34 countries. The University will certify its Fall 2026 enrollment on October 31 and welcomes prospective students and families to Open House on Saturday, November 7. For more information, visit desu.edu.