Class of 2011 yield falls to 68 percent

A total of 1,218 students of the 1,791 admitted to the University have chosen to enter the Class of 2011, according to Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye. This represents a yield of 68.0 percent, which is down slightly from last year's 69.2 percent.

Rapelye is not surprised that the yield — the percentage of admitted students who have matriculated — has fallen slightly in light of the lowest admission rate in the history of the University.

"When you are more selective, all of those students have more choices," Rapelye said, "so in some ways, it is surprising that yield only went down by one percent."

Yield can be used to gauge the competitiveness of a University, and it is a factor in the rankings compiled by the U.S. News & World Report.

Harvard has historically had higher yields than Princeton, with a 79.2 percent yield this year; Penn saw a 66 percent yield this year, while Yale has not yet released this year's yield. Last year, Yale witnessed a 71 percent yield.

The number of students who chose Princeton is slightly below the number needed to meet the target class size of 1,245 students. The University will accept about 30 students from the waitlist this year to meet the target, and these students are currently being notified by phone. Last year, no waitlist students were offered spaces.

"I am particularly delighted that we have a great number of students who want to study engineering," Rapelye said. In the Class of 2011, 226 students will enter the Engineering School. The number of students accepted into the Engineering School was about 340, so the yield percentage within the School was about 66.5 percent.

About the same number of engineers enrolled last year. That number has grown from about 170 students since Rapelye became dean four years ago. She said that the admission office has made a much greater effort to enroll more engineering students and more female engineers.

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The gender breakdown has been relatively consistent over recent years, with 53 percent of the class male and 47 percent female for the Class of 2011.

Rapelye explained, "We had exactly 1000 more men than women apply." She said that the University is one of few institutions in higher education where men outnumber women in the applicant pool.

"Racial diversity in this class is strong and robust," Rapelye said. About 38 percent of the incoming class will be minority students, slightly up from 37 percent last year. The Class of 2011 is 15 percent Asian American, eight percent African American, eight percent Hispanic, six percent biracial and less than one percent Native American.

International students will make up 11 percent of the freshman class, up from 10 percent for the Class of 2010 and nine percent a year earlier. "I think that this increase reflects our new financial aid policy for international students," Rapelye said. More than 50 countries are represented in the new class.

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The legacy figure is 15 percent for the incoming class, up from 14 percent for the Class of 2010 and 12 percent for the Class of 2009.

About 11 percent of the students in the incoming class are the first members of their family to attend college. "We are making efforts to look at students from every background," Rapelye said, "I think it is important to contribute to social mobility in this country."

A majority of the class will receive financial aid according to Rapelye, who expects the figure to be about 54 percent, which is roughly on par with last year. "The rate of growth has slowed down, but it is still a remarkable statistic," she said.

David Walters, a member of the incoming class from Yonkers, N.Y., said that Princeton's offer to cover 80 percent of his tuition played a part in his choice to matriculate at the University when he had received acceptances from Harvard, Columbia, Middlebury, New York University and Wesleyan.

"I got more money from Princeton than I did from Harvard, so that was a plus," Walters said, who plans to study philosophy or a social science.

The average SAT score for the students of the Class of 2011 has gone up slightly from those last year. The average score was about 2186 overall, with 730 for math and verbal plus 726 for writing, Rapelye said.

Though the admission process is mostly over, there may be a small second wave of acceptances from the waitlist, according to Rapelye. "We have already had a number of students defer to Class of 2012," Rapelye said, "and there will be some summer melt, meaning 10 or so students will decide to take a year off." The process will be complete by June 30.

Next year, it may be harder for the University to hit the target class size because of the elimination of Early Decision. "It will be more difficult to predict the yield," Rapelye said, "but we are looking forward to seeing all the students in one process."