Written by Rudy San Miguel

The Siebel School of Computing and Data Science in the Grainger College of Engineering welcomed its newest class of Illinois computer scientists to the Siebel School family on the weekend before the Fall 2026 semester started on Monday, August 24. With nearly 1,700 new undergraduate and graduate students joining the Siebel School, this year's incoming class is the biggest yet.

Master's degree and Ph.D. students gathered at the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science, where they grabbed new student swag and mingled under the late afternoon sun among "The House of Imagination" and "The Bench of Opportunity," two popular sculptures on Siebel School's north lawn.

Incoming undergraduates made their way into the Illini Union after a day of swag-snagging at Quad Day, where they were treated to dinner and Siebel School gear.

Though official enrollment numbers won't be available until September, preliminary numbers show substantial growth in the School's incoming undergraduate class and continued strong enrollment across its graduate programs.

By the numbers

The Siebel School welcomes 685 new first-year undergraduate students this fall, an increase of nearly 40% from 490 in 2025. Growth was particularly strong in the Computer Science major and the Math & CS and Statistics & CS degrees, as well as several CS + X programs, including Economics and Linguistics.

Overall graduate numbers held steady, with 1,002 new graduate students this fall compared with 1,006 in 2025. The Master of Computer Science program, the Siebel School's coursework-only professional master's degree, continues to grow across its Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Online offerings, welcoming 814 new students this fall, up from 767 last year.

The School welcomes 91 new Ph.D. students this fall. This follows an unusually large incoming Ph.D. class of 144 students in 2025, with this year's smaller cohort reflecting a planned adjustment following last year's significant increase. The incoming thesis-based Master of Science in Computer Science class remains steady at 83 students.

Numbers are as of August 25, 2026; final enrollment numbers will be available after September 4, 2026.

New Siebel School undergraduate first year students by program

New Siebel School first year graduate students by program