Acceptance rate drops 10 percent in last five years

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions released its remaining admissions decisions last Friday, which include a record-low 17.4 percent acceptance rate for the Class of 2018.

With 19,075 applications for next year’s freshman class, this is the third record-high pool Tufts has received in the last four years, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin. The numbers are particularly notable for the School of Engineering, where the number of applicants increased by 17 percent from last year. This is the eighth year in a row the school received a record-breaking applicant pool.

“That’s the untold story, the explosive growth in the School of Engineering,” Coffin said. “I think it’s ... partly because of a national trend and it’s partly a continued expansion of the visibility of the School of Engineering at Tufts.”

While the number of applications to the School of Arts and Sciences did not notably increase, Coffin said the combined acceptance rate for both undergraduate schools has dropped by 10 points in the last five years.

“I think some of it is the success of the undergraduate admissions website,” he said. “We went live in the fall of 2011 and the [applicant] pool is up almost 17 percent in the two years we’ve had an online recruitment platform versus a more traditional print based system ... The admissions blogs [are] a really significant draw.”

This year’s acceptance pool includes students from all 50 states, two more than last year. In particular, there has been a tremendous growth in the number of applicants from California. Tufts received 2,417 applications from this west coast state, compared to 2,441 from Massachusetts.

“It would not surprise me next year to see California become the number one state in the applicant pool,” Coffin said. “That is a function of the web. I think we have eight different admissions officers that recruit in California. We’ve spent more time doing programs in the state.”

The admissions office also saw continued growth in applicants from outside the United States, Coffin added, in large part due to increased travel from admissions counselors and increased visibility of the school.

According to Coffin, standardized test scores for the Class of 2018 remained relatively consistent with last year’s record scores. The mean SAT critical reading score remained unchanged at 728, and the math was at 732, slightly down from 735, but still higher than it has been for classes within the last decade. The average ACT score also remained at 32.

Ninety-three percent of accepted students ranked in the top 10 percent of their class. However, Coffin noted that this statistic excludes the many students who come from high schools that do not use ranking systems. Unlike last year’s class, which included slightly more female students, almost an equal number of male and female students were accepted this year, according to Coffin.

Approximately two-thirds of this year’s pool applied for financial aid — a consistent number from last year’s applicant pool, Coffin said.

“The goal is to continue to raise resources to make Tufts successful,” Coffin said. “There is never going to be an admission cycle where that eases up.”

Tufts Admissions also accepted a record 342 first-generation college students this year, an increase over the 295 admitted last year.

“I’m really proud of the increase in the first-gen community at Tufts,” said Coffin, who was a first-generation college student himself.

There were 3,315 total students accepted for the Tufts Class of 2018, a number that has also decreased in recent years as larger numbers of accepted students decide to attend Tufts, according to Coffin.

Admitted students will have until May 1 to submit their deposit. As it has annually, the school will host three Jumbo Days on April 17, 18 and 25. Coffin encouraged current students to sign up to host the most recently accepted Jumbos.