College admissions exceeds target number this year

Minority student enrollment down from last year

This fall the College of the Arts and Sciences exceeded its target goal of 615 transfers and first-years and enrolled 674 new students, Director of Admissions Debra Chermonte announced at Tuesday's College Faculty meeting.

The College enrolled 40 new students in the Double-degree program and 105 new musicians in the Conservatory. The entering class numbers 819, coming in at 19 students above target.

Chermonte said the Office of Admissions not only met all its goals, which were increasing the applicant pool, reducing the admit rate and improving the yield - but also succeeded in "exceeding all expectations."

For the second time in six years, the number of applications topped 4,000, a three percent rise in applications over last year.

The College admitted 64 percent of its applicant pool, down eight percentage points from last year's 72 percent.

The yield - or, percentage of admitted students who choose to attend Oberlin - rose by two percentage points, from 25 percent to 27 percent. The original goal for the yield was to improve it by one point.

One hundred and thirty-two minority students enrolled, comprising 19 percent of the entering class. Last year, 22 percent of the entering class were students of color.

This year, 46 black students, 24 Latino students, 60 Asian-American students and seven Native American students enrolled. Last year, 72 black students and 36 Latino students enrolled.

Chermonte said that the decline in the number of black students might be attributed to having a lower admit rate for an applicant pool that is not "appreciably higher" than last year's, the College's elimination of race based financial aid and a nationwide enrollment increase at black colleges. In response to the drop in the number of entering black students, Nelson DeJesus, associate professor of French, said, "I view with absolute dismay [that the college enrolled 46 black students] ... I just can't see why we can't make any progress. I just don't know what we're going to do."

President Nancy Dye said the College needs to find more creative ways to expand its black student applicant pool both nationally and regionally. She said that the College can attract black graduates of local community colleges by establishing positive relationships with such schools.

Dye also said that the College needs to pay more attention to its black student retention rate, which is lower than all other Ohio schools. She said a low retention rate affects recruitment because students will not want to attend a college which they do not think they have a chance of completing their education at.

Seven of the 10 Native American students who were admitted enrolled, a yield Chermonte said was amazing.

The average grade point average for the incoming class was 3.44. The class of 2000 is the first admitted with a newly recentered SAT system. The average verbal score is 670 and the average math score is 633. The entering class included 34 National Merit Scholars.

In all, new students hail from 45 states and 21 foreign countries.

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