Numbers have always been important in the world of tertiary education: SAT scores, ACT scores, the inverse square root of the rate of growth of an exponential function.
There seems to be a number for every occasion, and numbers for the graduating class this year are no different.
As of May 31, 1,076 people were scheduled to graduate, 964 of which are from the original 1,085 of the class of 2000, who started in 1996.
Twenty-four students transferred into the class of 2000 and 98 students are from other classes.
Fifty-five percent of the graduates are male with 560 students, whereas 53 percent of the original class was male.
Most of the graduates are from the Mid-Atlantic and New England, with New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California and Connecticut being the most popular states. Originally the mid-Atlantic region was the most represented region.
There are 41 international students graduating, representing 20 different countries. This only represents 3.8 percent of the graduating class, down from the 4.8 percent that began at Dartmouth in 1996. The most popular countries are Canada, India and Pakistan.
Back in May of 1996, The Dartmouth reported that Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenburg said he was concerned with the low level of minority representation in the incoming class of 2000.
The class had the fewest minority students of any class in the last five years.
Only 4.7 percent of the class was African-American, 7.9 percent Asian-American, 3.7 percent Latino and 1.5 percent Native American.
Furstenburg speculated that the racist slurs written on the doors of Asian students at the College during Winter term of that year may have discouraged some minority students from enrolling.
The class contained more valedictorians than ever before, with 186 ranked the first in their high school class. Almost 90 percent of enrolled students were in the top ten percent of their class.
During their time at Dartmouth, 519 of the graduates, or 48percent , spent at least one term on a Dartmouth off-campus program. Three of the graduates each spent 3 terms away.
At the time, the Class of 2000 was the smartest class ever, Furstenburg said.
