An exceptionally talented group of 900 freshmen will enter the University of Rochester for programs in the arts and sciences, engineering, and nursing this fall as the Class of 2000. The most dramatic single indicator of quality in the class is a gain in the combined average SAT scores of 60 points over last year's freshman class.
The gain in academic quality appears primarily related to a rise in applications and to the decision announced last fall to limit spots in the freshman class to 900. Students applied to the River Campus in record numbers: Fall freshman applications totaled 9,057 this year, as opposed to last year's 8,385. The decision to enroll only 900 freshmen is part of a long-range plan to create an even more intimate, residential campus for undergraduates at a world-class university. (In recent years, about 1,100 freshmen were enrolled each fall.)
This year's gain in SAT averages (a substantive change in addition to the "recentering" of SAT scores) comes on the heels of a similar, though less dramatic, gain last year. The combined average SAT score for the Class of 1999 was 35 points higher than that of the Class of 1998. The middle range of SAT scores for incoming freshmen this year is 590- 690 verbal, and 610-710 math.
Of the students who come from high schools that rank their graduating class, two-thirds are ranked within the top 10 percent.
Twenty-four percent of the students in the new class are minority individuals, including 12 percent from traditionally under-represented minority groups; another 5 percent are foreign citizens; 5 percent are children of University alumni; and 54 percent are New York State residents.
The Eastman School of Music expects an outstanding class of 129 freshmen, chosen from more than 800 applicants. Eleven of the young musicians are from the immediate Rochester area, the largest number of local freshmen in recent memory. ###