Following the most competitive admissions year in the College's history, 1,120 students plan to matriculate in the Class of 2012, according to Maria Laskaris, dean of admissions and financial aid.
The matriculating group -- 560 men and 560 women -- represents a 51 percent yield from the 2,190 admitted students, Laskaris said, compared to the 53 percent matriculation rate of those admitted to the Class of 2011. Laskaris said she is happy with the strength of this year's yield, and cited decisions to eliminate early admissions programs at Harvard University, Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania as factors that may have contributed to a reduced percentage of matriculating students.
"Given all the uncertainty this year with some of our peers discontinuing their early programs, 51 percent is still very high," Laskaris said.
Of the 16,538 applicants, the highest number in Dartmouth's history, only 13.2 percent received offers of admission, Laskaris said.
The Class of 2012 represents an overall increase in diversity from the Class of 2011, Laskaris said. Students in the Class of 2012 hail from 42 countries and all 50 states, she added.
"We've got students from the northernmost region of Alaska, from Baghdad and lots of places in between," she said.
At 26.3 percent, students from the Mid-Atlantic represent the largest matriculating geographic group, Laskaris said. Many students also hail from New England and the West, at 19.4 and 19.3 percent, respectively.
One hundred members of the Class of 2012 identify themselves as African-American, a 1.3 percent increase from the Class of 2011 and the highest percentage matriculating in over 20 years, the Admissions Office reported. The percentage of the students who identified as Latino and Native American also increased slightly from last year.
Students in the Class of 2012 come from 820 high schools worldwide -- 56 percent of the matriculating group attended public school, a drop from 59.1 percent of the Class of 2011, 38.1 percent attended private school and 5.1 percent attended parochial schools. The Class of 2012 also saw a two percent increase in high school valedictorians and a one percent increase in salutatorians. Laskaris expects this year's statistics to change slightly before the Fall term, and she noted that a small number of students may choose to defer matriculation or accept an offer from a different institution.
"Right now, we've got about 30 students over our target class size," she said. "Given all the wait list activity at some of our peer institutions, though, I don't think it's going to be quite enough to fill the class."
Due to this activity -- Harvard plans to admit between 150 and 175 students from this year's wait list, according to The New York Times -- Laskaris said she expects to admit some students from the wait list.
"So far, we haven't had anyone contact us and say they had been admitted from the wait list at a different school, but it's a possibility," she said.
Laskaris expects to hear from students that have been admitted elsewhere later this week, following wait list acceptances from peer institutions last week, she said.
Dartmouth has never required a deposit upon acceptance of admission, but Laskaris said she does not expect this to encourage students to rescind their acceptances.
"I don't think we've ever had a situation where a student accepted a wait list offer because he or she didn't pay a deposit to Dartmouth," she said.
The Class of 2012 is the first class admitted under Laskaris's leadership. Laskaris said was impressed by the wealth of interests and experiences the incoming class will bring.
"There is tremendous potential in the class coming in," Laskaris said. "It's really exciting to finally meet the students who accepted our offer."
