Dean of Admission Jess Lord calls this year’s freshman class “remarkably diverse,” as 10% of the class of 2017 is a foreign student, compared to 9% last year.
By now settled in their classes and no longer eating at assigned Customs group tables in the Dining Center, the Class of 2017 has truly arrived. Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Jess Lord called this freshman class “a remarkably diverse class in all the ways we measure this…the first class in Haverford history for which more than 10 percent of students come from outside the U.S.”
According to statistics provided by the Admissions Office, the freshman class casts a wide geographic net, drawing students from 12 countries and 34 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The class saw the largest enrollment from the mid-Atlantic region at 45.7%. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California and Massachusetts are the states with the largest representation.
China tops the list of countries with 17 students, followed by South Korea (3), India (2), France (2), Turkey (2). Students also traveled from the Czech Republic, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Japan, Serbia and Taiwan.
Of the 3,585 applicants, 842 students, or 23.4%, were admitted. Of those admitted, 333 students enrolled.
11.3% of students come from a family in which neither parent attended college, and another 15 percent from a family in which one parent attended college.
In terms of race and ethnicity, 59.5 percent of the freshman class identified as Caucasian and 36.6 percent as a student of color, including: 8.1% African-American, 15% Asian or Asian American, 12.3% Latino, 0.3% Native American. 14.9% of students also identified as multiracial.
Students in the class of 2017 were among the top of their class in high school. Of the enrolled students whose schools provide rankings, 94.7% were in the top 10 percent and 98% in the top 20 percent of their graduating class.
According to figures provided by the Admissions Office last year, 44% of the class of 2016 identifies as a student of color. Admitted students came from 44 states and and 28 countries.
International students are increasingly attractive to the College, as most do not receive financial aid and pay full tuition. Growth in applications from China is the largest, with the number of applicants almost doubling between 2015 and 2016 and no-need candidates nearly tripling.
Photo: Freshmen from the Class of 2017 participating at the annual Dorm Olympics on Founder’s Green. Photo by Jordan Nieusma.
When it says “admitted students came from 44 states and 28 countries” last year, does that mean all students who were accepted or only students who actually enrolled?
Also, I could be misreading, but it seems like if you compare the statistics for 2016 with those for 2017, there’s been a significant drop in geographic and racial diversity. Is this true, and if so, does anyone have any idea why? It seems like there could be more to the story than “remarkably diverse”.
Thanks for the interesting article.
I just want to hop on the notion that there’s more going on to this story than just a celebration of geographic and international diversity. In universities both private and public across the nation, more international students are being admitted, precisely because the students applying to elite schools from abroad are more likely in a position to pay full tuition than students applying from within the US, to whom colleges such as Haverford promise to be “need blind.” Here are some examples from other schools:
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2011/10/11/more-international-students-getting-no-fin-aid
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/04/uc-admits-record-number-of-out-of-state-and-international-freshmen.html
So while Haverford is celebrating the class of 2017 as an achievement particular to admissions at Haverford, it’s important I think to put these trends in a wider context of university privatization and efforts by universities across the country both private and public to generate more revenue.