Last Monday the Wesleyan community officially welcomed the Class of 2008 onto campus. According to the official profile released by the Office of Admission, the new group of students is in line with admissions trends of past years.
Of 6,568 applications received, 28%, or 1,843 students, were admitted. Forty percent of those students accepted the University’s offer, filling out the class of 2008 with 729 students. Thirty-eight percent of the student body was admitted through early decision. The number of applications decreased by about 400 since last year, as did the number of early decision students.
According to Greg Pyke, Senior Associate Dean of Admission, the decrease in early decision applicants was due in part to a great deal of bad press.
“We’d been hearing in the press a lot about whether or not early decision is a good process, and whether it favors some groups,” Pyke said.
This trend is balanced out by the increase in yield, from 38% to 40%, which means that more students who are offered admission decided to accept Wesleyan’s offer.
“We heard from many students that although Wesleyan is their top choice, they don’t want to go early,” Pyke said.
Median SAT scores are up slightly from last year. The median math score is 700, as opposed to 690 last year, and the median verbal score remained at 700. The ACT median score is 31, the same as last year.
According to Nancy Meislahn, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, the most important qualities the Office of Admission looks for in candidates are leadership and engagement in and out of the classroom and the motivation and preparation to work across the entire curriculum.
“About one third of those admitted will have held leadership positions,” Meislahn said. Eighty-two percent of admitted students have taken biology, chemistry and physics, and 76% have taken calculus.
Pyke said that, as in other years, the Office of Admission has tried to take into account each applicant’s background and capabilities, and what sorts of opportunities have been available to the applicant. Eleven percent of admitted students are the first generation in their family to go to college, and 24% of admitted students have at least one parent who did not attend college.
Students of color, including international students, totaled at 37% or 225 students. Sixteen percent, or 119, are Asian/Asian-American as opposed to 102 last year, with 81 matriculates from the US. Latino/Hispanic students, including international students, dropped from 62 to 56 this year. The number of Black/African American students fell from 56 last year to 45 this year, including international students. There are also five Native Americans in the new class.
Pyke and Meislahn agreed that the declining number of Black/African American students is a problem, and said that the Office of Admission is working on several initiatives to reverse that trend.
“This year we were concerned about black student enrollment from pretty early in the process, because applications from black students did not go up this year,” Pyke said.
According to Pyke, part of the problem is that Wesleyan is losing Black/African American applicants to Ivy League schools and other large highly competitive Universities.
Pyke noted that this year reinforces the trend of a growing number of international students.
“The international student group is the largest it’s ever been this year” Pyke said. Seven percent of the class is composed of international students, including one student from the island of Mauritius.
According to Pyke, the international student body is composed of two groups: non-U.S. citizens who are looking for higher education, and Americans who have lived overseas for most of their lives. While students in the second group do not technically count as international students, these students will still be able to bring a multicultural perspective to the University.
“Wesleyan feels that the best liberal arts education is in international education,” Pyke said.
Pyke also noted that non-US citizens who seek education abroad are competitively sought after by the very top schools in the country, so it is significant that Wesleyan has attracted so many international students.
The incoming class is also geographically diverse. As usual the Mid-Atlantic ranked first, with 38 percent of the new class, and New England in second with 25 percent. Students from the West total 13 percent, and those from the Midwest and from outside the US tied at nine percent. The smallest percentage of students comes from the South, with five percent.
Pyke and Meislahn were both excited to be welcoming three students from Alabama and, for the first time in many years, one student from North Dakota.
Over the last ten years the number of applications received has increased by 20 percent, and selectivity has increased by eight percent.
“The common thread among Wesleyan students and successful Wesleyan applicants is a curiosity—about the world, about one’s place in it, about other ideas, perspectives and experiences,” Meislahn said. “And, by those measures and characteristics, the class of 2008 meets our very high standards.”
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