The overall number of applications to the College remained steady this year, but the number of African-Americans who applied to Dartmouth under the regular decision program dropped by 19 percent, according to numbers released by the Office of Admissions yesterday.
The number applications received by the Admissions Office this year remained steady at 10,239, but 73 fewer African-Americans applied for regular admission to the freshman class than did last year, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg said.
Only three African-American students were accepted under the Colleges early decision program this year. At that time, Furstenberg told The Dartmouth he worried national media attention the College received after the "ghetto" party and surrounding controversy during Fall term might hurt regular minority application numbers -- a prediction he said yesterday appears to have come true.
Three-hundred and eleven African-Americans applied for regular admission to the Class of 2003, compared to 384 last year for the Class of 2002. Between 400 and 420 African-American students applied for admission to the Class of 2001 and the Class of 2000.
Dartmouth attracted media attention -- including an article in the New York Times and mention on the late night talk show Politically Incorrect -- during the controversy which followed the co-sponsoring of the party by the Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity and Alpha Xi Delta sorority.
The events took place in November -- too late to affect the early decision numbers but just more than a month before the regular decision deadline.
Furstenberg said he received about 15 questions from prospective students regarding the social atmosphere at the College and there were probably more people who did not call the Admissions Office and simply decided not to apply to the College due to the events Fall term.
Furstenberg said in addition to the negative publicity which affected Dartmouth specifically, growing anti-affirmative action sentiment in the nation may have discouraged African-Americans from applying to many competitive colleges.
"My sense from other colleges and other Ivies, most of them are down in African-American applications," Furstenberg said. He said this suggests that the applicant pool could be smaller nationally and not just at Dartmouth.
Director of Minority Recruitment Sylvia Langford said she is not happy with the declining applications but is encouraged by the strength of the minority applicant pool.
"I'd like to see the numbers increase in every area," Langford said.
Langford and her staff work on encouraging minority students to apply and come to Dartmouth.
"We bear responsibility to put together a class that is diverse," Langford said. "One of the ways is to raise Dartmouths visibility in the eyes of minority students."
New financial aid policies intended to help increase the economic and ethnic diversity of the student body did not affect application numbers significantly, but could impact which students decide to matriculate, Furstenberg said.
While the number of African-American applicants fell, the number of Native American applications significantly increased, however, from 132 last year to 163 for the Class of 2003.
Furstenberg said the 23 percent increase in Native American applications is due in part to increased minority recruiting efforts in both on campus and at high schools around the country.
"We have been working for the last couple years in a very concerted way to reach out to Native American communities around the country," Furstenberg said, adding that these efforts are made for all minority groups.
Although the number of Native American applications was a significant increase from last years numbers, there were approximately 150 Native American applicants to the Class of 2001 and the Class of 2000.
Asian-American applications dropped from 1083 to 1007. The drop of seven-percent was something Furstenberg said is not a cause for concern.
"It's a really small change," Furstenberg said. "The pool of over 1000 [Asian-American] applicants gives us a large and strong pool to choose from."
There were 1,100 Asian-American applicants to the Class of 2001 and the Class of 2000.
Latino applications were similar to last years, rising from 409 for the Class of 2002 to 423 for the Class of 2003.
Approximately 480 Latino students applied to the Class of 2001 and approximately 537 Latino students applied for admission to the Class of 2000.
Although minority application numbers are down, Furstenberg said this years applicant pool is very strong in comparison to past years.
"I'd say this is probably the strongest applicant pool weve ever had," Furstenberg said.
The average SAT verbal score of students applying for admission to the Class of 2003 was 677, compared to 668 last year. Average math scores rose from 687 to 694.
Just under 400 students have already been accepted into the Class of 2003 under the early decision program.
Furstenberg said this year may be one of the most selective in the Colleges history due to housing shortages created by the large sizes of the classes of 2001 and 2002. The Class of 2003 is projected to include about 1,055 students.
