With Student Orientation quickly approaching, the Office of Admissions recently announced some of the details of RPI’s Class of 2008. A large decrease in the acceptance rate yielded a much smaller freshman class than last year and has also led to some new records for admissions statistics.
According to numbers provided by Teresa Duffy, dean of enrollment management, 1,113 students enrolled in the class of 2008. By comparison, last year’s freshman class enrolled with 1,341 students. The target size for both of these classes was 1,200 students and as a result of last year’s peak in enrollment, RPI accepted only 73% of applicants this year as opposed to 80% of applicants last year.
In 2002 and 2001, admissions sought smaller freshmen classes of 1,125 students annually. In 2002, only 1,049 enrolled but in 2001, the incoming freshmen class had 1,112 members.
This was the first year since Duffy’s tenure began in 1994 that RPI had an admissions waitlist. Of the 263 applicants waitlisted, 69 were later offered admission and 33 of them accepted the offer. Duffy said that she was excited about the amount of students who accepted the offer of admission from the waitlist saying it was a “great yield.”
According to Duffy, the smaller class this year will allow for classes to have fewer students in them and allow for more student-faculty interaction. She pointed out that the admissions office was “pleased about the quality and diversity of the class.”
Information provided by Duffy says that the Class of 2008 has set at least three records for enrollment statistics. The class’s 1321 average SAT score is the highest ever at RPI. The percentage of Rensselaer Medalists is also the highest it’s ever been—26 percent of the freshmen class received the Medal during their junior year of high school.
The third record was that 115 students in the freshman class had either a parent or grandparent that attended RPI. Duffy said this was the first time that this statistic was in the triple digits.
“There’s a wonderful message there about our education and the possibilities it brings…and the longstanding connection that Rensselaer makes with its graduates,” Duffy said.
Duffy also pointed out that 11 percent of the class is made up of minority students and that this was one of the highest percentages for that statistic. She said that she sees the trend of increasing statistics continuing, but pointed out that one percentage that is somewhat disappointing is the amount of women who enroll. The class of 2008 is 24 percent female but Duffy says that she would like to see this number increase in future years.
As far as the decision of whether or not to use a waitlist again, Duffy said that the decision will not be hers to make; she will be retiring at the end of September. Duffy said that target class size and some other decisions are based off of recommendations that the Enrollment Planning Committee brings to the president in the late fall.
