Financial aid budget for next academic year projected to increase by 10 percent
Dartmouth College will extend offers of admission to 2,165 applicants for its Class of 2014, from a pool of 18,778. This year’s applicant pool is the largest in the College’s history – and represents a 3.5 percent increase over last year’s record number of applicants.The overall rate of admission this year was 11.5 percent, compared to 12.5 percent for the Class of 2013.
In December, Dartmouth accepted 461 students into the Class of 2014 through the early decision admissions program, from a pool of nearly 1,600 applicants.
Of those who were ranked by their secondary schools, 95.3 percent of students admitted were in the top 10 percent of their secondary school’s graduating class, including 39.9 percent who were valedictorians and 11.9 percent who were salutatorians. The mean SAT scores for students admitted this year are: 733 Critical Reading, 741 Math, and 740 Writing.
Maria Laskaris, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid and a 1984 graduate of the College, noted the challenge this year of the heightened selectivity. “Our applicant pool has grown by nearly 80 percent over the last decade and the size and strength of our applicant pool makes the process of selecting students for Dartmouth much more complex and challenging than it has ever been,” she says. “We take our jobs very seriously, and we work hard to bring a consistent and thorough approach to the review of every application submitted to Dartmouth.”
The Class of 2014 was selected through a fully need-blind admissions process. Once admitted, Dartmouth meets 100 percent of each student’s demonstrated financial need for all four years. Students whose family incomes are below $75,000 will receive free tuition from the College. Approximately half of the entering class will receive need-based financial aid. The College has budgeted for a 10 percent increase in total financial aid for FY 2010, to $78 million.
The applicants will be able to receive their decisions at 5 p.m. on April 1 via a secure website. Admitted students with completed financial aid applications will also receive their financial aid packages via secure website on April 1.
Although the Admissions Committee has not grown in size, the office has utilized new technologies and hired experienced additional readers to assist with the review of applications. In recent years, Dartmouth has shifted to an entirely paperless admissions process. This has enabled the College to expand its group of additional readers to include people off campus. “This year,” notes Dean Laskaris, “four former Dartmouth admissions staff members assisted in the review of applications—from Alaska, North Carolina, New York City, and Boston. All file reading is done online, and we’re making more use of new technologies to stay connected with our former colleagues as well as those additional readers within our own community.”
The Dartmouth Class of 2014: Facts and Figures
- A total of 2,165 students were admitted – 1083 men and 1082 women, respectively
- Admitted students come from across the nation and around the world:
- New England 14 percent
- Mid-Atlantic 27 percent
- Mid-West 11 percent
- South 17 percent
- West 22 percent
- Outside the US 8 percent
- 11 percent are first in their families to go to college
- 9 percent are children of alumni
- 44 percent are students of color
- 7 percent are international students
