The 1,070 students who will make up the Class of 2003 have finally been chosen, with Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg describing the class as "far more diverse" than previous years in terms of race, financial situation and geographic background.
"In some ways, it's a dream year," he said. "We always have a strong pool of applicants, but this year we were able to maintain the strength of the students all the way from the admitted to the matriculated class."
Most notable about the new class is that its minority representation is the highest in the College's history.
In January, Furstenberg told The Dartmouth there was some concern in the Admissions Office that minority numbers would be down this year as a result of the national publicity surrounding Fall term's "ghetto" controversy.
Despite these early worries, however, numbers for all groups of minority students have increased to 29.4 percent, as compared to 20.3 percent for the Class of 2002 and 25.4 percent for the Class of 2001.
Within the incoming class, 6.4 percent of students described themselves as African-American, 11.3 percent as Asian American, 7.6 percent as Latino, 3.5 percent as Native American, and 0.6 percent as Multi-Racial.
The Latino numbers constitute a 78 percent increase over last year, and Native American matriculants increased by 61 percent.
Furstenberg credited these increases to highly successful on-campus visitation programs, the improvements made to the College's financial aid program and increased personal contact with minority candidates during the fall and winter.
He also pointed out that the accompanying increases in academic credentials should work to dispel the myth that a class cannot be both academically accomplished and racially diverse.
While the new class's combined SAT average of 1426 remained at the same level as the Class of 2002, 28.9 percent of the '03s are valedictorians, as compared to 22.0 percent of the '02s.
Additionally, one hundred students received a score of 800 on the SAT I verbal, 81 scored an 800 on the SAT I math and 17 got perfect scores on both.
Hailing from every state except Nebraska and Arkansas, the Class of 2003 shows a substantial geographic shift from previous years, with more students from the West, the South and overseas.
In fact, six percent of the class is international, the highest number in at least five years, Furstenberg said.
Drawn from 783 different secondary schools, 62.5 percent of the class graduated from public secondary schools and 37.5 percent from private or parochial schools.
The effects of the College's new financial aid policies, which replaced many loans with scholarships, can also be seen in the makeup of the new class.
Students receiving scholarship assistance comprise 42.4 percent of the Class of 2003, as compared to 39.6 percent of '02s, and the average scholarship has increased by about $3,500, Furstenberg said.
Much as it has been in recent years, the class is almost equally divided by gender, with 51.1 percent male and 48.9 percent female.
Furstenberg said despite the statistical diversity, "you never know how a class is going to seem to the rest of the community. But I think this class will come to Dartmouth with different expectations because of the new social initiatives."
During his interactions with admitted students and their families, Furstenberg found that many '03s see the prospect of change in social and residential life at Dartmouth as positive.
"Change is in the air, and I think we may have attracted more students who are politically active and want change," he said.
Of the 1,070 students who have indicated their intentions to enroll at the College, 394 were admitted early.
Furstenberg said he thinks early admissions are important because they lend predictability to the process and allow the Admissions Office to get a head start.
But he added that, in his mind, universities like Harvard and Princeton take too many students that way when they admit approximately 50 percent of their incoming classes during early admission.
Because of this year's high yield, Furstenberg said that he does not foresee having to take any students from the waitlist, which has not been used for several years.
Typically, the number of enrolled students decreases by about 40 during the summer, with approximately 20 students deferring admission and another 20 dropping out altogether.
Furstenberg said the Admissions Office has been cautious this year because it does not want to exceed the budgeted class size of 1,050, due to the recent housing crunches and the large size of the Class of 2002.
