Meet the Class of 2026!
Last week, we welcomed hundreds of new undergraduate students to the Bethel community. Here’s a Welcome Week recap, along with some fun facts about our newest Royals.
By Cherie Suonvieri '15, GS'21, content specialist
August 31, 2022 | 1:30 p.m.
Like years passed, Welcome Week 2022 was filled with energy and excitement as Bethel's newest Royals were embraced by the community. After a warm greeting from Welcome Week staff, incoming students experienced a variety of Welcome Week favorites, like the lakeside picnic, an outdoor movie, Koinonia, and The Show. This year’s schedule also featured a Transfer Connection Event, Commuter Kickoff, and a Cultural Connections Dessert to celebrate diversity at Bethel.
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Snapshots from Welcome Week 2022
They danced, they laughed, they made new friends—and now that Welcome Week has come to a close, our newest Royals are experiencing their first week of class. Curious who they are? Here’s a high level view of our 875 new students!
At publishing, these numbers represent our best enrollment estimates, but enrollment data won’t be official until after the 10th day of class.
We welcomed 401 first-year students, 53 transfers, 355 PSEO students, and 51 former PSEO students who loved their experience so much they decided to continue after high school. Sixteen new students joined the BUILD program, and 10 new Act Six scholars joined the Bethel community, becoming the university’s eighth cadre of the full-tuition, full-need scholarship program. All of these students join 1,385 returning students, to make up an estimated undergraduate student body of 2,260.
Our newest Royals are 60% female and 40% male. Around 21% are students of color, which is a new high for the College of Arts & Sciences. Students who have had a parent or sibling attend Bethel (also known as legacy students) make up 33% of the incoming class. And 30% of students plan to play on a Royals athletic team.
The most popular majors of choice include:
- Exploratory/Undecided
- Business
- Nursing
- Biology
- Biokinetics
- Physics and Engineering
- Education
- Psychology/Neuroscience
- Computer Science
- Biochemistry/Chemistry
Incoming students represent 28 different states, the most popular after Minnesota being Wisconsin (35), Colorado (12), Iowa (9), Illinois (6), South Dakota (6), and Florida (4).
The most popular first names include Grace (17), Anna (14), Ashley (11), Jacob (8), David (8), and Matthew (7). The most common last names are Johnson (19), Anderson (10), Peterson (8), Lee (6), Vang (5), Olson (5), Nelson (5), and Carlson (5).
This is, of course, just a high level view of our newest students; there’s so much more to learn! To our newest Royals: welcome to Bethel. We can’t wait to get to know you better—and we’re excited to journey with you as you grow into the person you were created to be.
Our world needs more Royals.
We need more Christ-followers, truth-seekers, and world-changers—now, more than ever—and at Bethel, we're equipping graduates to respond to that call. Do you know a student who would make a great addition to the Bethel community? Take a minute to tell us about them.