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Apparently everyone wants to go to the University of Houston
The University of Houston , long considered a commuter school despite numerous residence hall upgrades across campus, appears to be shedding that unfortunate label.
According to The Daily Cougar , freshman enrollment reached 7,000 for the first time in the school's nearly 100-year history, setting a new benchmark for freshman enrollment for the third year in a row. In terms of students who put in applications with dreams of one day possibly being a Cougar and walking up and down what Case Keenum once referred to as the home of the " Third Ward Cougars ," the number of completed freshman applicants topped nearly 39,000, an increase of over 4,600 applicants compared to 2025.
With the influx of new students, the university has also launched a peer mentoring program to ease students into their first year on campus. According to reports, more than 500 peer mentors have been recruited for the program's launch year and are expected to serve around 3,000 to 5,000 incoming students.
Other schools in the state are also boasting record freshman admission numbers. The University of Texas began its first day of classes earlier this week after receiving more than 100,000 undergraduate applications for the fall semester.
Over the years, UH has done everything to attract potential students, from building renovations to new facilities, high-profile athletics from the men's basketball team to the football team, and more. It's also attracted plenty of students who don't originally call Texas home. As the Cougar reported, most incoming freshmen came from California, followed by Louisiana and Illinois. International newcomers arrived from countries including Vietnam, Canada and India.
The rise of California kids trading the University of California system for UH somewhat coincides with the mass exodus of Californians, whether residents or businesses, to Texas. A March report from Chron found that more than half of the 100 companies that have relocated to the state since 2020 originated in California, with Austin taking on most of them from "Silicon Valley."
So while the school has slashed more than 45 percent of courses from its core curriculum to align with SB 37 , the news hasn't deterred future Cougars from showing up on campus en masse to take in a slice of Third Ward and the college experience.
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