As the incoming freshman class anxiously awaits joining a new group of peers, it can rest assured that statistics point to a Class of 2008 that follows in the Cornell tradition of academics and diversity.
Admissions received 20,820 undergraduate applications, according to Doris Davis, associate provost for admissions and enrollment, up from 20,442 the previous year.
From these applications, 29 percent were accepted for the Class of 2008, compared to 31 percent for the Class of 2007.
Of those accepted, 3,085 enrolled in the University as of July 7, — 1,120 of which were accepted Early Decision in December.
While the numbers suggest a student body that cares about their studies, many are also looking forward to crazy college life.
“What I’ve heard is that people party a lot but are still academically involved… so that’s what I intend to do,” said Nessia Sloane ’08.
Others expect a somewhat more serious crowd. “I’m sure there’ll be some partiers, but I’m guessing most people will be there for the academics,” said Isha Tohill ’08.
Cornell Admissions’ goal for class size is 3,050, but they expect the enrollment to drop by “a few” by the fall, said Davis.
Such numbers make Cornell the largest of the Ivy League, but Cornell students seem to look forward to what the size has to offer.
“I really didn’t want a small school,” said Sloane, but she is happy that the smaller colleges within the University will help Cornell from feeling too vast.
“A little smaller would be nice, but then there’s the opportunity to meet people all the time,” said Tohill.
Males slightly outnumber females in the Class of 2008, who consist of 51 percent of the students.
Twenty-nine percent of the incoming freshman class identified themselves in their applications as either African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, Native-American or multi-cultural. This number is a slight increase from the Class of 2007’s 28 percent minority students, but lower than the Class of 2006’s 33 percent.
The geographic makeup of the class consists of all 50 states; Washington, DC; Puerto Rico and 48 other countries.
The top 10 states of residence for enrolling students are New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, Connecticut, Florida and Virginia. International students makeup 12 percent of the incoming class, with Canada, England, Japan, People’s Republic of China, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Kuwait, Thailand and the Philippines as the most common nations of residence.
This is a dramatic increase in international students from the previous year, which consisted of only 6.5 percent.
Archived article by Amy Green / Sun Staff Writer