Higher Education

Fewer than half of OU freshmen are Oklahomans … again

September 8, 2025

Ray Carter

In what has become an ongoing trend, the majority of freshman students enrolling at the University of Oklahoma this fall are not from Oklahoma, but hail from other states and countries.

OU’s status as a state school that mostly serves out-of-state students is not typical and is in marked contrast to enrollment figures at other universities not only in Oklahoma, but the surrounding region as well.

While total freshman enrollment at OU is greater than the total number of freshmen enrolled at Oklahoma State University, the number of Oklahoma students who chose OSU exceeds the number of Oklahomans who enrolled as freshmen at OU.

Of 6,251 total freshman students enrolled this fall, a record at OU, just 47.6 percent, or 2,976 students, are from Oklahoma.

In comparison, OSU’s freshman class this fall totaled nearly 5,200. But at OSU, 61.38 percent of this year’s freshmen class, or 3,167, are students from Oklahoma.

That means OU has a larger freshman class while serving fewer Oklahoma freshmen than OSU.

While OU officials boasted in a recent press release that this was the “third consecutive year that a record number of Oklahomans have chosen to start their freshman year at OU,” those Oklahoma students have represented a smaller and smaller share of overall enrollment in recent years.

In the same press release, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. subtly noted the schools’ increased reliance on non-Oklahomans, saying that OU is “rapidly drawing students and families from across Oklahoma and beyond.”

This is not the first time Oklahomans have comprised less than half of OU’s freshman class, and continues a trend that has been ongoing for several years now.

In 2024, an analysis of OU freshmen released by the university showed that 47.8 percent of first-time freshmen at OU that year were from Oklahoma, while 49.7 percent were from other states and 2.6 percent were international students.

According to the school’s analysis, nearly 57 percent of OU freshmen were Oklahomans as recently as 2014.

In 2014, there were 4,176 first-time freshmen who enrolled at OU. This year’s total freshman enrollment is 2,075 students greater than the 2014 figure. But the vast majority of enrollment growth has come from out-of-state and international students.

The total number of Oklahomans enrolled as freshmen today at OU represents an increase of 596 since 2014, but the number of out-of-state and international students who enroll as freshmen has surged by 1,479 students. Out-of-state and international students have accounted for 71 percent of freshman-enrollment growth at OU since 2014.

OU’s increased reliance on out-of-state and international students appears to be, in part, a financial strategy. Because out-of-state students pay dramatically higher tuition rates and overall direct costs than Oklahoma students, increasing the share of out-of-state students represents a financial windfall for the university.

At OU, resident students living on campus pay an average of $5,370 in tuition and $31,733 combined in direct costs, including tuition, fees, books and supplies, and housing costs.

But non-resident students from other states who live on campus pay an even higher amount: an average $23,490 in tuition and $49,853 in combined tuition, fees, books and supplies, and housing costs.

Based on the total direct costs reported by the university for students living on campus, close to two-thirds of freshman revenue at OU may come from the 52.4 percent of non-Oklahoma-resident students enrolled at the university, creating a strong incentive to cater to the desires of out-of-state students more than the needs of Oklahoma residents.

OU officials have openly acknowledged that catering to out-of-state students has become a significant part of the school’s financial strategy.

At a November 2024 presentation to the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, first reported by online news site NonDoc, OU officials reported that net tuition revenue per freshman had increased, in part, because of the increase in “the nonresident portion of first-time freshmen.”

A discussion of enrollment trends from Fall 2015 to Fall 2024 bluntly noted, “Undergraduate growth over the periods presented has been driven by growth in nonresident enrollment.” The document also noted that first-time freshmen growth from 2015 to 2024 “has been driven by nonresident enrollment.”

Although the large share of out-of-state students at OU may not explain it, there is a significant difference in the political views of the student body at OU compared to students at OSU, according to survey data.

The 2025 College Free Speech Rankings, a product of College Pulse and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), found that there were  1.5 conservative students for every one liberal student at OSU.

Of the 257 schools ranked in the report, conservative students outnumbered liberal students at just 29 colleges and universities.

In contrast, there were nearly two liberal students for every conservative student on campus at OU.