This year’s freshman class enrollment is projected to increase by 1.1% from last year’s. As of Aug 20, the total number of freshmen is projected to be 2665 students, 15 students higher than the original goal set by the undergraduate admissions office.
“The goal this year was 2650… Clearly 15 above is better than 15 below,” said Rick Clark, the interim director of undergraduate admissions.
The number of enrolled students comes from the 6467 students who were accepted last spring. The number of applications increased by 7.01% during the 2007-2008 admissions year. This year’s students also had higher SAT scores. The average SAT score for this year’s freshmen class was 1364, which was 9 points higher than the year before. In addition to the increase in the total number of students, the number of male students in the freshmen class increased by 2.28%, with 32 more male students than last year.
However, some numbers have not all increased. The number of female students decreased only slightly by 1.41%, thereby making the ratio 31.6% to 68.4%, female to male. Out of the 5586 applications received from out-of-state students, only 933 were accepted and enrolled, which was 8.71% less than last year. In-state students, however, increased to 1499 students for the fall, 7.76% more than the year before.
Including the actual number of students, this year’s new class of students encompasses students from 45 different states and 41 different countries. Another interesting fact is that this year’s freshman class includes eight sets of twins.
While the number of students enrolling at Tech has been increasing for several years now, college selection is not easy to predict. Many prospective students want extra information and experiences before they choose the right college. Therefore, Tech offers numerous preview and special programs for high school students, such as Connect With Tech and Girls Night Out to provide prospective applicants with a deeper understanding of the Tech culture.
“The special programs have always been a part of the admissions recruitment programs. All of our on campus programs – Connect With Tech, FUTURES, or Open House ( also known as Preview Georgia Tech) – they’re all assigned to come and see Georgia Tech and visualize themselves as students,” said Leslie Jackson, assistant director of undergraduate admission for special recruitment programs.
“What we hope to do this year more than last year is that we hope to get more students to come take a visit. Of course in order to do that we need help. We need more current students to help us recruit next year’s awesome freshman class,” Jackson said.