Acceptance letters to potential members of the Class of 2006 will be sent out tomorrow in a year that saw fewer students admitted despite an overall rise in the total number of applications.
The overall acceptance rate declined to 20 percent from 22.8 percent a year ago, when a bumper crop of matriculating '05s overwhelmed the College's residential system.
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenburg said this year's number of admittances, which fell to 2077 from 2220 a year ago, was reduced to alleviate the current housing shortage.
Meanwhile, the number of non-white students admitted has risen to the highest levels in the history of the College.
Students of color sent more applications than ever before and received 37 percent of acceptance letters, up from 34.5 percent in 2001 and 28 percent just four years ago.
The percentage increase in minority applicants was "the biggest among all the Ivies," according to Furstenburg, "and that increase is pretty consistent across the board."
Furstenburg attributed the increase in part to stepped up recruiting efforts by the College.
"We did more campus visitation programs this year," he said, explaining that minority students who have an opportunity to see the campus first-hand are generally more likely to apply.
The considerable increase in the total number of applications occurred despite fears that the events of Sept. 11 would discourage students from attending colleges far from home.
"I didn't see much impact on our results" from Sept. 11, Furstenburg said. "This idea that students were going to go to college close to home doesn't seem to have panned out."
In fact, applications from the West Coast and from international students are "way up" this year, according to Furstenburg, though the Northeast continued to supply the most applicants of any region.
Over seven percent of all acceptances were granted to international students this year, a number that Furstenburg said is "the highest it's ever been."
Although international students may be of any race, the admissions office does not keep track of such statistics, and international students are categorized separately from students of color.
From an academic standpoint, the Class of 2006 looks to have similar qualifications to other recent classes: exactly one-third of all admitted students were high school valedictorians, and over nine-tenths were in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes.
Average SAT scores rose slightly over last year's. Verbal scores rose a single point to 714 while math scores climbed two points to 723.
Furstenburg emphasized, however, that the final numbers only summarize the final results of an extended admissions process that takes into account a wide range of factors.
The ratio of men to women in incoming classes appears to have stabilized: 1052 women were admitted as compared to 1025 men.
The number of legacies rose slightly from previous years, though Furstenburg said the figure was "fairly consistent" with past totals. Legacy students continue to be admitted at rates higher than most other students.
"When it's a close call, the legacy status can be a bit of an extra plus," he said, noting that this situation occurs at all selective institutions.
386 of the 2077 admittances were made through the College's early decision program in December.
Nearly half of all admitted students applied for financial aid, Furstenburg said, with the average scholarship totaling $20,900.
