More visas among freshmen

By Deb Hammacher

The Class of 2005, numbering some 1,233 students, came to campus this fall from every part of the United States and 29 other nations.

Thirty-seven percent of the incoming class applied through early decision, meaning Emory was the students’ top choice and that they withdrew applications to other institutions when accepted by Emory. International student applications and enrollment continued a strong upward trend, with a 20 percent increase this year on top of increases of 26 and 40 percent during the past two years.

“International recruitment has shown impressive growth as a relatively ‘new’ market for Emory,” said Dan Walls, dean of admission. “We are now traveling internationally and have seen double-digit increases in international applicants.”

Official figures will not be available until the registrar’s date of record Sept. 11, but the preliminary profile by the numbers of the incoming class is:
• 51 percent female, 49 percent male.
• 16.6 percent Asian American, 9.2 percent African American,
4 percent international, 2.8 percent Hispanic.
• 32.6 percent total minority and international freshman enrollment.

“We continue, as we have in the past, to get the Emory message out to as broad a population of prospective students as possible—the use of the Internet, direct mail and expanded travel recruitment has aided us,” Walls said.

The average SAT score of incoming freshman is 1327, with a median range of 1280–1450. The average unweighted GPA is 3.63. Among students awarded merit scholarships through national competition, the average SAT score is 1474 and average ACT score is 34; the average GPA is 4.0 (unweighted). There are 34 such students, or approximately 2.8 percent of the incoming class.

A total of 46 states are represented in the incoming class. The geographic breakdown of students is:
• 40.5 percent from the South.
• 22.9 percent from the Middle Atlantic.
• 10.4 percent from the Midwest.
• 8.1 percent from New England.
• 6.3 percent from the Southwest.
• 5.8 percent from the West.

The 49 international first-year students hail from 29 countries, including Korea (13 students); China (4); Canada, India and Turkey (3); Brazil, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, South Africa, Spain and Taiwan (2); and one student each from Argentina, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Bolivia, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Russia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Venezuela.

Most of this class of first-year students has taken advantage of a high-tech option for getting to know their classmates: A web site called Connect 2005 was available to all accepted first-year students.

When students received their acceptance letters, they were given a user name and password that let them access the chatroom. Established last year, the interactive conference is a service on LearnLink, Emory’s campus intranet.

Finally, another factor played into Emory’s landing such an impressive class, according to Walls. “The extraordinary year Emory had in intercollegiate athletics has greatly expanded our reputation of producing superb student-athletes,” he said.