Ohio State is once again the biggest university in the nation.

With an increase of students choosing to stay at OSU, it’s numbers have increased to 51,818.

In addition, the number of students transferring to OSU has gone up along with freshmen who choose to come to the university.

“We have no desire to be the biggest university in the United States, that is just kind of an accident. But it is an accident born out of our good luck,” said Martha Garland, vice provost for Enrollment Services and the dean of Undergraduate Education.

Garland said that because of OSU’s success in athletics and the university’s ability to “take care of them once they arrive,” enrollment has increased and the number of students who leave has decreased.

“Our aim is not necessarily to be the biggest, but to be the best,” according to a statement from President Karen A. Holbrook. “Students are attracted to Ohio State by the quality of our faculty and programming, and these numbers tell us we are succeeding.”

The university tries to keep the undergraduate level at about 36,000 and currently there are about 37,000 enrolled.

According to the statement, the student body must be kept at a level the university can educate, but also must be large enough so that the university can “keep the lights on.”

“It’s very strategic to try to manage the enrollment and keep it at a steady place,” Garland said.

If the student body gets too large the university cannot properly educate its students, however, without the funding that comes from tuition the university could not function properly.

To determine how many new students can be admitted, the retention rate is studied. Students who will continue their education at OSU are compared to those who drop out or transfer to another university.

“Ideally you would admit the number (of students) you could manage and that you needed for finances of the university, they would all stay, and four years later they would all graduate. No university has that,” Garland said.

To reach 5,800 freshmen, the university admits more students to account for those who decide to attend other universities.

“With the freshmen, we aim right at 5,800, but they like us so much that they’re coming in larger numbers,” Garland said.

The ratio of freshmen who come to OSU is called the yield. Most universities have a yield of about 40 percent and OSU used to be at that same level, Garland said. OSU’s yield, however, has been increasing over the past few years.

This year 6,150 freshmen decided to come to OSU, making the yield about 50 percent.

“Students and their families seem to like us better than we are estimating,” Garland said.

Garland said transfer students are harder to control. Any student with at least 45 credit hours and a 2.0 grade point average can transfer to OSU.

In previous years the university has been lenient with the June deadline because they needed to reach the 36,000 goal, but because of the increase in transfer students and freshman yield, the deadline has been enforced tightly.

Garland said another benefit to enforcing the deadline is the quality of students who transfer has increased.

Because of the large amount of transfer students Garland said the requirements for transfer students might become more tough.

In addition to more freshmen and transfer students, more students are staying at OSU.

Garland said when the quality of the preparation level increased for students, about 76 percent of students came back after their freshman year. Last year that number increased to 91 percent.

Contradicting these increases, students are graduating quicker. Nevertheless, Garland said the increase in graduation has not outweighed the increase in the yield and transfer students. Currently 42 percent of students graduate in four years is that percentage and is expected to continue to rise.

“The nicest reason of why there are more, is that students are persisting,” said Garland.