Burlington, VT — Schools across the state are seeing record numbers of students, including students coming from abroad.

According to the National Center for Education, college enrollment around the country has been dropping since 2009, but Vermont appears to be bucking that trend.

On Monday, Vermont’s largest university welcomed its largest first-year class, with roughly 3,000 students. Half of them are coming in from outside of New England.

“It’s really exciting, it’s good to feel the energy, the juice that is back on campus that students bring with them, I’m sure our neighbors and community members in Burlington feel it too,” said Jay Jacobs, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management.

Jacobs says this is also UVM’s most diverse class, with about 13% self-identifying as students of color.

“About 10% of our students are first-generation students meaning they are the first in their family to try to obtain their bachelors degree,” he said.

In Vermont, Bennington College will welcome its second largest entering class when they arrive Thursday.

“Bennington is on a roll right now, we have nearly doubled the applications in the last couple of years we did good effort on outreach and enrollment and marketing work,” said Tony Cabasco, Vice President for Enrollment at Bennington College.

Castleton University is also seeing more international students. “They represent many, many different countries — it’s roughly 17 or 18 countries they represent,” said Maurice Ouimet, Vice President of Admissions and Enrollment Services at Castleton University.

At UVM, Jacobs is excited for what the future holds. “We are really looking forward to see what the students bring to us both in the classroom on campus extracurricularly and bleeding out throughout the state.”

Jacobs says keeping students safe is their number one priority at UVM. Students can use new app called the Live Safe App, a virtual blue light system to connect with school safety officials.