The Class of 1997 was "the smartest, most diverse class in Dartmouth's history" at the time of its matriculation, according to a 1993 article in The Dartmouth.
Out of an applicant pool of 8,583 persons around the world, 2,090 were sent letters offering them admission at Dartmouth. The admitted student body had the closest gender parity at that point in time, at 52 percent male and 48 percent female.
Minority students numbered at 587, or 28 percent of those admitted. International students composed 6.6 percent.
Academically, the admitted class was superior to anything Dartmouth had seen before. Ninety percent of the class had been in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, and almost a third had been valedictorians.
Of the 2,090 students admitted, 1,064 decided to enroll, representing "812 high schools in 46 states and 33 foreign countries, 53 percent men, 47 percent women," according to an article in The Dartmouth from fall 1993.
Among the students who enrolled, 87 percent introduced themselves to Dartmouth through a Dartmouth Outing Club Freshman Trip, according to the DOC's Annual Report for that year.
Time has changed the Class of '97. Now, they number 1,045 students, with 550 men and 495 women (still 53 percent and 47 percent), according to Associate Registrar Nancy Broadhead.
Now, minorities make up 21 percent of the class, and international students 6 per cent, according to Broadhead.
While they were here, 508 '97s participated in Language Study Abroad or the Foreign Study Program, spending a total of 573 terms away from Dartmouth.
The four most popular majors among the class are government, economics, history and biology in that order. In addition to this, 14 percent of the class filed double majors.
According to Career Services, 602 seniors registered for recruiting services.
