Enrollment Management

About the division

Enrollment Management is led by Tobias Lindahl, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management since 2020. He reports to the provost, sits on the chancellor’s cabinet, and is responsible for one number above all others: how many students start each fall and how many come back. For fall 2026 that number was 8,412, a nine-year high and 6.1 percent above last year (the enrollment announcement).

The four offices

Billing and payment plans belong to the Bursar (Neil Torkelson), which sits in finance rather than here; the four offices above will send you there rather than make you find it.

Fall 2026 enrollment

Total headcount

8,412 (91 percent undergraduate)

New first-year students

1,742

New transfer students

812, about a third from Wesconsin technical colleges

Graduate students

757

First-to-second-year retention

79.4 percent (fall 2025 cohort)

Students receiving any aid

81 percent

Housing occupancy

98 percent

Official census figures are taken on the tenth day of the term and published by Institutional Research.

From applicant to student

1. Apply. No fee, no essay; a decision in about two weeks. Requirements are on first-year admission requirements.
2. File the FAFSA. Porter’s priority date is December 1; see scholarship deadlines and priority dates.
3. Visit. Daily tours start at the Welcome Center; Ironclad Preview Days run in fall and spring.
4. Confirm. A $100 enrollment deposit holds your place and starts housing; details on enrollment deposit and confirmation.
5. Orientation. Summer sessions in June and July; First Forge, the pewter pour, ends move-in weekend.

Transfer, returning and out-of-state students

• Transfer students can see how credits will count before applying with the transfer credit preview tool; transfer orientation runs separately from the first-year sessions.
• Former Porter students who have been away a semester or more re-enter through readmission, which is usually a one-page form, not a new application.
• Minnesota residents pay a reduced rate under tuition reciprocity. Whether a student counts as a Wesconsin resident is decided by the registrar under the rules on residency for tuition purposes.
• Adults and part-time students can take a course without being admitted to a degree; the registrar enrolls non-degree and guest students from the first day of each term, space permitting, and those credits count if the student later applies.

How an application is actually read — what counts, what doesn’t, and who reads it — is explained on how Porter reviews applications.

How the division works

The four offices share one student record and one service desk in Founders Union, so a student with a hold, a missing aid document and a registration problem can sort out all three at the same counter. Wait times at the desk peak the first two weeks of each term; outside those weeks the median wait last year was six minutes.

The division also sets the enrollment targets that drive the budget, works with the colleges on program capacity (nursing and cybersecurity are full), and runs the counselor travel schedule that puts Porter admissions staff in about 230 high schools a year.

When something goes wrong between offices — an aid package that changed after registration, a transcript held for a balance the student says was paid — the associate vice chancellor’s office will take the case and answer within three business days. Email enrollment@uwporterfalls.edu with your student ID and a short description; you do not need to have tried every office first.