By Angela Wu, Special Writer
Princeton University accepted 2,150 students into the Class of 2013 out of a record 21,964 applicants on Tuesday, with an acceptance rate of 9.79 percent, according to a statement from the university. This year’s acceptance rate is slightly above last year’s acceptance rate of 9.25 percent. 1,331 students were offered a spot on the waitlist.
International students made up 10 percent of this year’s group of admitted students, coming from countries ranging from India to Venezuela. Men and women were equally represented in the group. 9.1 percent identified themselves as African American, 20.9 percent as Asian American, 7.9 percent as Hispanic or Latino, 0.5 percent as Native American and 6.4 percent as multiracial, according to the statement.
The overall number of applicants this year increased 2.8 percent from last year’s 21,370 applications for the Class of 2012.
FINANCIAL AID
”It has been heartening to watch the pool continue to grow, even in this sobering economy,” Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said in a statement in January. “We are especially pleased the number of students applying for financial aid has increased, because it shows that our message about Princeton’s generous financial aid policy was heard by the students who applied.”
Though Princeton began the current 2008-2009 academic year with a financial aid budget of $87 million, the university eventually increased the budget to $92 million because of changes in the financial aid needs of many students.
The university projects that next year’s scholarship budget will rise again to $104 million, spokeswoman Cass Cliatt said in an e-mail. The 13 percent rise will meet the growing needs of students on financial aid.
The university also expects that the number of incoming freshmen who require financial aid will rise from 56 percent of last year’s class to 59 percent, according to the statement. The average grant awarded is also expected to increase to more than $36,000 from this year’s $33,600.
STUDENT BODY EXPANSION
As part of the university’s efforts to increase the size of the student body, the Class of 2013 is expected to be around 1,300 students, the highest number of freshmen in history, according to the statement. The class will be slightly larger than the Classes of 2012 and 2013, which had around 1,250 students each as of September 2008.
The university has aimed to increase the size of the student body by 11 percent from 4,700 students in 2005 to 5,200 students by 2012, according to a statement in 2005, when the expansion began.
A committee of the university’s Board of Trustees recommended the expansion in a report in 2000, in order to “expand the range of talents, perspectives, and academic and nonacademic interests in each class” and to allow more students to take advantage of the university’s resources, according to the report.
”Our goal in expanding the freshman class is to offer this splendid education to more students, and we feel fortunate in this tight economy that we are reaching that goal,” Rapelye said.
The incoming freshman class will be the first to have the opportunity to participate in Princeton’s new Bridge Year Program that will place a group of 20 incoming freshmen with volunteer groups in Ghana, India, Peru and Serbia. The university expects the number of students to eventually rise to 100 students.
ANXIOUS APPLICANTS
As the minutes ticked closer to 5 pm EST, when all Ivy League schools released their notifications, tour groups of prospective Princeton students and their families could still be seen following student tour guides around campus. Most seniors, however, were by their computers –though Princeton mailed out envelopes both thick and thin this week, students were able to check their application status online.
In the hour before the admittances were released, Will Tong, a high school senior from Los Angeles who applied to several Ivy League schools, stared at his computer screen and chatted with friends. He said they tried to avoid College Confidential, a popular online forum where high school students often consult each other and current college students on the application process.
”We’re a little anxious —checking the clock more often,” he said.
In St. Louis, high school senior Marc Prablek was also waiting to see where he had been accepted.
”I tried to not really think about it, but it was difficult. Once you send off the application, it’s really out of your hands,” said Prablek, who like many students, submitted his application more than three months ago.
”Princeton has been one of my top choices, so it just felt really satisfying,” he said, after he discovered he had been accepted. “It’s definitely a school that I’m strongly considering.”
