The last time Florida A&M University welcomed an incoming class as large as the current one was in 2016.
Now, a decade later, students are navigating “the Hill” for the fall semester, and the 2026 incoming class is making its mark as one of the university’s largest in recent years.
“I’m from Atlanta, coming to like the number one public HBCU, that’s already a title,” said first-year student Rylee Jarvis. “Having the most admitted students in a long time and me being one of them, is really like something to be proud of.”
The incoming class is also arriving with academic accomplishments of its own. According to FAMU’s admissions office, the class has an average GPA of 3.9, an average SAT score of 1,120 and an average ACT score of 23.
John Rose has been working on FAMU’s campus for 27 years and interacts with many
freshmen in the Rattler Card office. He says this incoming class stands out not only because of its size, but because of the creativity and ambition he sees in today’s students.
“I think this incoming class is way more progressive and that causes them to have way more resources than we did back in the day,” he said. “Their networks are expansive, they’re younger entrepreneurs now, we have the whole podcast and influencer movement—they’re developing their own lane.”
Some freshmen came from being displaced from Howard University, which dropped over 500 incoming freshmen from its class roster due to missed tuition and financial aid paperwork deadlines. While FAMU extended this opportunity to students, it came with a significant hurdle: on-campus housing was completely full.
“I was very disappointed, and I was just in great shock,” said Jayda Parks-Quarie, a freshman at FAMU. “It was two weeks before I was supposed to move in as well. So, I also felt kind of lost, like, What am I supposed to do next? It was a whole bunch of uncertainty.”
Compressing ten months of out-of-state moving preparation into a two-week window proved stressful, but Parks-Quarie noted that FAMU moved quickly to welcome her back into the fold. Securing a bed on campus, however, was another hurdle entirely as the university dealt with full dorm capacity.
“When I was trying to get housing, I knew they were saying they were filled to capacity and everything, and it was definitely stressful,” Parks-Quarie recalled. “I started looking for off-campus options, but then at the last minute, I did get a notification saying that they found housing available for me. So, I was beyond blessed for that.”
William Hudson Jr., Ph.D., Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, supports students as they navigate the hill and hurdles.
“We’ve included additional courses, we also have online courses that students have the opportunity to take,” said Hudson Jr., Ph.D. “We’ve increased our hours as far as academic advising, academic coaching, but also having access to financial aid support, counseling support, and other areas of the institution.”
The new student pinning ceremony took place the day before classes started and had a heavy emphasis on starting well and finishing on time. Dyvine Knight, a pre-nursing freshman, said being surrounded by all of her peers is constantly inspiring her.
“Seeing all the freshmen and all the different majors is just so crazy, how a couple of years from now, when everybody graduates, everybody’s going to be on their own path as future doctors, future lawyers, and everything,” she said.
