College enrollment exceeds expectations

The College exceeded its target enrollment numbers this fall, increasing the minority and international student numbers from last year's figures.

The entering class is overenrolled by 28 students, according to Director of College Admissions Debra Chermonte. 643 first-year students have enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences, along with 51 transfer students and 44 double degree students.

Chermonte said the selection rate was 62 percent, 10 percent below the selection rate two years ago.

"This was the most successful year for Arts and Sciences since 1990," Chermonte said. "We're really happy with this class."

Chermonte reported that 22 percent of the entering class are students of color, a three percent increase from last year. The class has approximately 61 African-American students, up from last year's figure of 46.

Six Native-American students have enrolled, one less than last year.

The number of first-year Asian-American students also dropped this year to 49, down from 60 last year. The College enrolled 33 first-year Latino students, down from 36 last year. The College enrolled 24 international students and the Conservatory enrolled an additional 31 international students.

Chermonte said the mean GPA of the entering class was 3.52 and the mean SAT scores were 670 verbal and 640 Math. Twenty-nine entering students were valedictorians of their high-school classes and 51 are National Merit scholars.

The Conservatory is enrolling an excellent class, according to Director of Conservatory Admissions Mike Manderen.

The admittance rate was 30 percent of the 1090 applicants, making it one of the largest applicant pools the Conservatory has ever had. Of the 30 percent that were admitted, 51 percent have enrolled. The yield is up from around 46 percent last year and around 43 percent two years ago.

Manderen said one explanation for the increase in yield over the past few years is that a few years ago, Oberlin began to overlap more and more with some of the biggest music schools, such as Julliard and Curtis. With that overlap now established, the Conservatory is seeing more students choose Oberlin over the bigger names.

"We're continuing a trend that we have seen over the last decade. We're increasing overlap of admitted students with top schools and equaling or outdrawing the other schools with the students who choose us," Manderen said. "It's a first choice for a lot of students. We seem to be doing very well in attracting very talented students."

The Conservatory exceeded its enrollment target by 23 students this year, but Manderen was quick to point out that enrollment targets do not always accurately reflect the enrollment situation.

"A good job is based on whether we enroll a spread of talented students," Manderen said. The entering class of 167 has 23 transfer students, cutting down crowds in the required introductory music theory and music history classes.

"Many students won't be moving through the pipeline starting at the same point," Manderen said about the transfer students.

No instruments are lacking this year, and the class is very well distributed by instrument and major, Manderen said.

Chermonte said the College enrolled 34 alumni children this year. Thirteen percent of the class are first generation college students.

"This is the largest group we've had in a long time," Chermonte said.

"We're just delighted for a lot of reasons. Mostly for the kinds of talents and interests that they bring to Oberlin," Chermonte said about the class as a whole.

The top states in the college admissions cycle this year were New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, California and Pennsylvania. Chermonte said there was no change there from last year. The Conservatory's biggest states were New York, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The number of students from Ohio who enrolled in the College increased from around 40 to approximately 80. Chermonte attributed this large increase to a new merit program to aid Ohio students.

Chermonte responded to criticism of the move to enroll more students from Ohio by saying it was a positive move that the administration had initiated a few years ago.

"There is no danger in Oberlin becoming a regional school - period exclamation point," Chermonte said.