The Office of Undergraduate Admissions released its remaining acceptance, rejection and waitlist letters last Friday for Tufts' Class of 2017 with a record-low acceptance rate of 18.7 percent.
This was the third year in a row in which the acceptance rate hit was unprecedentedly low, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin. The number of total applications to Tufts also increased 12.5 percent from last year to hit a record high of 18,420, becoming the second record applicant pool in the last three years.
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions received a record-high 3,194 applications to the School of Engineering this year, a 15 percent increase from 2012, according to Coffin. This is the seventh consecutive year in which the School of Engineering has received a record number of applications.
According to Coffin, there are many reasons for this year's surge in applicants, including a new focus on online media to draw prospective student interest.
"We switched our communications plan last year and went to the online-centered medium with our new blogs and with the revamped website," Coffin said. "That clearly has brought our message to a much wider audience."
Coffin also attributes the larger pool to programs run by admissions officers on and off the Hill.
"Our ongoing recruitment travel and the programs we run on campus have really been very successful," he said. "The 22 admissions officers literally traveled all around the world last year. In many cities we had standing-room-only crowds, so all of those things combined created some really nice momentum for us."
According to Coffin, Tufts' increased selectivity is a direct result of the growth in the applicant pool.
"When you get more applications, you can take fewer," he said. "It's simple math. For the last three years, [the admissions rate] has been moving down a point or two every year."
The Class of 2017 boasts improved academic statistics, according to Coffin.
"The scores are up and the class rank and the academic standards of the new class are a reflection of the deep quality of the applicant pool," he said.
A record 94 percent of the students admitted to Tufts for the fall were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, when ranked, Coffin said.
Mean SAT scores were all unprecedented as well: The class of 2017 averaged 728 on the critical reading section, up from 724 last year, 735 on the math section, up from 729 last year and 733 on the writing section, up from 730 last year. The mean ACT score, 32, is consistent with last year's mean score.
"It was a very strong applicant pool," Coffin said. "I was personally struck by how good they were."
The average SAT math score for students admitted to the School of Engineering, a critical piece of the application for engineers, according to Coffin, hit a record high of 764, up from 759 last year.
The admitted students are 52 percent female and 48 percent male, which according to Coffin is consistent with the gender divide for the previous two years and should even out to a 50-50 split among enrolling students.
The students who comprise the Class of 2017 come from 48 states and 75 countries.
Thirty-two percent of domestically admitted applicants are students of color, up from 30 percent last year, and 15 percent of admitted students are international students, up slightly from 14 percent last year.
According to Coffin, 52 percent of admitted students applied for financial aid, an increase from the 51 percent who applied in 2012.
"I won't know the answer to this until May, but my projection is that the dollars spent on the class of 2017 will be a record amount of money," Coffin said.
Forty-one percent of the admitted Class of 2017 was selected through early decision, according to Coffin. Coffin expects that 38 percent of accepted students will enroll at Tufts.
"I use the last seven years as a way to forecast this current year," Coffin said. "That's the magic of my job."
