A statewide survey of first-year students, based on the higher-education institutions they chose to attend, found that Bridgewater State University had the second largest number of incoming freshmen in 2014.
The results, printed recently in the Chronicle of Higher Education, found BSU behind only the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, which in 2014 had 3,377 first-year students.
BSU had 1,476 freshmen that year. Rounding out the top five were other UMass campuses: Lowell had 1,427 freshmen; Dartmouth, 1,418; and Boston 1,155.
The data is the most recent available for this survey.
The results also revealed that most first-year students attend an institution in their home state. In fact, more than a third of freshmen select a school within 50 miles of home.
