Autumn 2009: Of Note

Ruben Diaz on campus

Quest for Knowledge: Ruben Diaz of New Mexico is one of ten students attending Emory on a QuestBridge scholarship.

Kay Hinton

Welcome, Class of 2013

Doors open for diverse freshman class

By The Numbers: The Class of 2013

1,315 enrolled

52% female

3.71-3.98 average GPA on 4.0 unweighted scale*

1320-1460 average SAT total*

12% international

63% from public high schools

35.7% admitted through early decision

45 U.S. states represented

65% non-Caucasian or unspecified

*among admitted students

By Mary J. Loftus

When Ruben Diaz 13C, a football and track and field athlete from Roswell, New Mexico, with a 4.4 GPA, began searching for colleges to attend, he knew his parents—first-generation Mexican immigrants—would not be able to afford a top private university.

But when Diaz became a finalist in QuestBridge, a national nonprofit program that links bright, low-income students with scholarship opportunities at some of the nation’s best colleges, Emory made his short list.

“I narrowed the list to five or six, with Emory being one of them, then ranked them,” says the eighteen-year-old Diaz. “After I did a little more research, I realized Emory was definitely the best school I had on the list.”

As one of 1,294 newly enrolled students in Emory’s Class of 2013, Diaz joins a selective group—28 percent of those who applied were accepted.

Diaz is planning to major in neuroscience and behavioral biology and received a four-year scholarship with everything covered from tuition to meal plan. Despite the fact that he spent his first few weeks hobbling around campus on crutches after injuring his knee practicing for Songfest, he says Emory is all he hoped it would be. “I like my classes so far, and the campus is great. It has a good setting and is nice to walk around in and see friends and hang out,” says Diaz, who lives in Few Hall. “Lullwater Park, that place is awesome. I’m planning to walk there when the stress of school becomes too much.”