Welcome Class of 2017!

May 1st has come and gone, and that means colleges across the country have started to get an idea how their classes of 2017 are looking. We here at Tulane don't take an official census until the beginning of October, as numbers definitely fluctuate for all universities and schools over the summer and as the school year commences, but this blog will tell you a little about our incoming class which we are very excited about.

First off, things went down a little differently at Tulane this year than in years past. Year after year we have targeted a smaller incoming class size, and for the most part seen little success as Tulane has continued to increase in popularity (not a bad problem to have!) This year to enroll a slightly smaller class, we admitted nearly 500 fewer students than last year and continued to focus heavily on admitting students who we felt were academically strong but also had high levels of interest in Tulane. This successfully led to a slightly smaller size of class on May 1st and for the first time in a few years, we were finally able to admit a small group of qualified students from our wait list as planned. Tulane has rarely admitted students off of its wait list, so we were excited to be able to do so this year. If you are still on our wait list and waiting to hear from Tulane and would like to express your continued interest in Tulane, please contact your admission counselor to do so.

The size of the class will be around 1575, but remember much fluctuates over the coming months. The size is slightly smaller and closer to the size of freshman classes we saw entering back in 2009 and 2010, which is the perfect size for our campus. So we are very happy about this. We admitted fewer students than ever and had an overall acceptance rate of around 26%, compared to 27.27% last year. Our SAT scores are the same as last year, and over 60% of the class who reported rank came from the top 10% of their class. So by all accounts, this is one of the brightest classes we have ever recruited at Tulane.

Now, 7 facts about the class of 2017...

1) The freshman class will be roughly 59% female. The ladies have it again this year.

2) The top ten states, in order, are: New York, California, Louisiana, New Jersey, Texas (all have over 100 students each) and then Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, and Florida round out the top ten. This is the first time that I can remember, possibly in Tulane's history, that Louisiana has not been the top state in the class. It was outpaced by both NY and CA this year.

3) So it is not surprising to note that the West Coast has increased from 11% of the class in 2011 to 17% this year.

4) The class of 2017 comes from 45 states and Washington DC. Only Utah, West Virginia  Hawaii, Alaska and North Dakota are not represented.

5) The class of 2017 is a very international bunch- we have students coming from Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, France, India, South Korea, Panama, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Peru and Japan.

6) Here are the top 10 Most Represented High Schools: Highland Park HS (IL)- 15 students, Scarsdale HS (NY)- 13, New Trier HS (IL)- 10, Deerfield HS (IL)- 10, Staples HS (CT)- 9, Ben Franklin (LA)- 8, and the following schools all have 7 enrolled: Calabasas HS (CA), The Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts (LA), Wootton HS (MD) and Whitman HS (7).

7) The average freshman will travel 923 miles to attend Tulane from their hometowns.

So there is your snapshot! But more than just numbers and geographic, this class of first year students is a really cool bunch- I know many of them very well and am looking forward to their arrival on campus for New Student Orientation in June as well as for Welcome Weekend in August. More details to come soon, but get stoked- these kids are going to do some great things. We can't wait.