This spring, Dartmouth accepted 10 percent of its 22,416 applicants for the Class of 2017, and had a yield rate of 48.5 percent.
This year's applicant pool was one of the largest that the College has ever seen, though the number of applicants fell short of last year's record total of 23,110. This year's yield rate is also slightly lower than the yield for the Class of 2016, which was 49.5 percent.
The College extended 2,252 offers to applicants, including 464 through its early decision process. After accounting for students admitted to the College from the wait list, the Class of 2017 currently includes 1,122 students, said Maria Laskaris, dean of admissions and financial aid.
There are marginally more women than men in the incoming class, which will be 50.8 percent female and 49.2 percent male, Laskaris said. The past few classes have had more men than women.
Students of color account for 37 percent of the matriculating students, up from 36.4 percent the previous year. The proportion of international students is 8.9 percent, the same as last year's class.
Members of Class of 2017 hail from 779 different high schools, with 55 percent of students from public high schools, 40 percent from independent schools and 5 percent from parochial schools.
Forty-seven of the 50 states and 39 countries are represented in this year's matriculating class, Laskaris said. Students from mid-Atlantic states account for the greatest proportion of the class, at 24.8 percent, followed by those from Western states at 22.8 percent and New England at 14 percent. This is consistent with past years, although this year saw an increase in students from Western states and a decrease in those from New England.
There are no incoming freshmen from Delaware, West Virginia or Wyoming.
Approximately 11.3 percent of incoming students are the first in their families to go to college. About 8.8 percent are legacy students, with at least one parent who graduated from the College.
The matriculating class's mean SAT scores are 737 in critical reading, 741 in mathematics and 741 in writing. The class has a mean ACT score of 32.5. Thirty-nine percent of students were valedictorians, 10 percent were salutatorians and 95.3 percent ranked in the top 10 percent of their senior class.
Both the proportion of the class receiving financial aid from the College and the size of the average scholarship increased from last year, with 46.7 percent of the class receiving scholarships, Laskaris said. The average scholarship for members of the Class of 2017 is $43,381. For the Class of 2016, 44.5 percent of students received aid and the average scholarship was just over $41,000, Laskaris said.
Incoming students cited Dartmouth's D-Plan, study-abroad opportunities and strong academics as reasons for their choice.
"I just always kept coming back to Dartmouth," Clare Hern '17 said. "It just seems like such a cool place to be."
Catherine Kannam '17 said that she began her college search hoping to break with the family tradition of attending Dartmouth, but Dimensions changed her mind.
"What really made me want to come were the people, their excitement and their enthusiasm," she said.
