The College received 10,165 applications for about 1,075 spaces in Dartmouth's class of 2004 as of Tuesday, numbers that closely mirror recent years' application numbers.
The pool for the class of 2004 is roughly the same as last year. The 10,165 applicants for this year is just slightly lower than the 10,260 applications received for entrance into the class of 2003.
The percentage of applications from African American students has reached a high of four and a half percent, the highest total for Dartmouth in12 years.
Seven percent of this year's applications came from Latino students, comprising the largest percentage in the history of Dartmouth.
Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg attributes these increases to the record levels of diversity in the class of 2003, new recruiting programs and financial aid initiatives.
Among this year's current applicants, the mean verbal SAT score is 672 and the mean math score is 691. This is very close to last year's average verbal and math scores of 675 and 692, respectively.
Looking beyond the numbers and statistics, Furstenberg said this year's applicant pool consists of students who are talented in many ways, acting as leaders in their high schools and participating in a myriad of interesting and worthwhile activities.
He said he was particularly pleased with and encouraged by the favorable comments he has received from high school guidance counselors about Dartmouth. The counselors say their best students are taking serious looks at Dartmouth.
New trends in the 2004 applicant pool also show a rise in applications from outside the Northeast and from overseas.
The percentage of applicants from the Mid-West are up to 11.2 percent from last year's percentage of 10.8 while the applications from the West have risen to 17.1 percent from last year's total of 16.7 percent . The number of International applications are up almost one percentage point, rising from last year's number of 12.2 percent to 13.1 percent.
In regards to gender diversity, 54.7 percent of this year's applicants are male, while 45.3 percent are female. This ratio is comparable to those from the past couple of years.
At this point, Furstenberg is planning to admit 2,200 people and expects a class of roughly 1,075 students. Furstenberg admitted though, that this is only the beginning of the admissions process and that "there is a lot of fine-tuning ahead."
He said the number of students accepted by the College will depend also on what he hears from other colleges and the favorable and unfavorable things that may be said about Dartmouth in the news.
From Furstenberg's understanding, most other colleges and universities are experiencing a slight rise or a slight decrease in the number of applications they receive. In this regard, "Dartmouth is tracking with the norm," he said.
Furstenberg said it is too early to tell whether proposed changes in social and residential life brought about by the Student Life Initiative will affect future classes.
Furstenberg, said the class of 2004 was recruited entirely during the period when the Initiative was made public. The Initiative was announced one year ago, just around the time when students for the class of 2004 began to be recruited.
"Applicants are aware that change is in the air at Dartmouth and are encouraged to see that we are addressing social life issues but they are taking a 'wait and see' attitude, pending a more specific plan," he said.
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is currently in the process of evaluating applications. The decision letters will be mailed to waiting students on April 1.
