BATON ROUGE – LSU's enrollment this fall has reached a new record in university history for the amount of African American and Hispanic students.

According to university officials, there are 3,741 African American students enrolled, surpassing last year's record of 3,703. There are currently 1,820 Hispanic students enrolled, surpassing last year's record at 1,767.

"We are proud to welcome one of our most diverse student bodies ever to LSU," F. King Alexander, LSU president, said. "And we're happy to say that our progress doesn't end with the first semester. For three consecutive years now, we've been able to celebrate new records for the number of African American and Hispanic graduates, and we expect to maintain that trajectory moving forward."

Additionally, the total number of freshman is 5,475 this fall, which is the seventh largest entering class at LSU. According to university officials, the freshman class is the most academically talented class to enter the university with a composite ACT score of 25.7 and average GPA of 3.4.