Governor’s State University will allow freshmen to enroll for the first time starting in 2014.

The school, located nearly 40 miles south of Chicago, currently enrolls only junior-level students or higher.

University President Elaine Maimon said the university will have small class sizes so that students will receive specialized attention. Additionally, credits earned for freshman core classes will be transferable to any college in Illinois.

“We’re able to draw on decades of research on what helps the first year student become a university student and go on to graduation,”  Maimon said. “We expect that we will have a number of students who will have the very special first year curriculum we are offering.”

The university sees transformation to a four-year university as an opportunity to try something new – even in the campus dorms.The university is building residence halls on campus that will be available to all levels of unmarried students.

“First year student could be living next door to a doctoral student who could be living next door to a university junior,” Maimon said. “They’re going to be living, learning communities.”

The school is only accepting two hundred seventy students for the first year. Early admission for freshman is scheduled to begin next summer.