The College accepted 922 students of the 5,622 who applied to enter into the Class of 2007. The number of applicants is an all-time record for the College, according to Dean of Admissions Tom Parker, and is an increase of eight percent over the last year. The acceptance rate for regular decision this year was 16.4 percent, with 130 students out of a total of 382 early decision candidates being accepted in December. Early applicants will account for approximately 30 percent of the entering class. The average verbal SAT score was 724 and the average math score was 718, which increases the combined average SAT score by several points from last year.

The College strives to admit students from varied backgrounds. Thirty-six percent were educated at independent schools, five percent at parochial schools, 59 percent at public schools and three students were home-schooled. 10.5 percent of the accepted students are Latino, 13.8 percent are African American, 13.9 percent are Asian American, 0.4 percent are Native American, 39.7 percent are white, 7.5 percent are of mixed heritage, 8.8 percent did not wish to identify themselves with any race and 5.4 percent are non-U.S. citizens.

The top four countries from which non-U.S. students were accepted are Canada, South Korea, Bulgaria and India.

New York, California and Massachusetts saw the highest number of accepted students. New Jersey, Illinois, Texas and Connecticut were tied for fourth place. Florida, Pennsylvania, and Maryland are also on the top ten list of states. "Twenty-four percent of accepted students were from California, Texas or Florida," said Parker. Four hundred fifty-three of those accepted are male, and 469 are female. Women have had a higher acceptance number than men in the past five years. According to Parker, gender is not taken into consideration during the acceptance process, and these numbers do not show that there is a stronger acceptance preference for women.

Some accepted students, according to Parker, have already sent their enrollment decisions to the College. "As of Friday, we have 166 deposits and 36 of them are April admits. The rest of them are early-decision [students]," said Parker. Forty-five of those accepted have already replied responding that they will not attend the College. The College has yet to hear from 711 students.

Four hundred and sixteen students is the target enrollment number for the incoming freshman class. The target has been gradually decreasing in the past several years, mainly due to dormitory renovations and changes in first-year housing. "[We want to] play it safe," said Parker. The number of beds and the overall size of the College are taken into account.

The Enrollment Planning Committee, which meets in January of every year, uses trends in past enrollment and the number of students studying abroad to determine the size of the first-year class.

This year, housing renovations have been taken into account in determining the target number as has the relatively low number of students confirming that they plan to study abroad.

The maximum targets for enrollment was 425 for the class of 2004 and 420 for the class of 2005. The target was 435 for the Class of 2002, the highest in recent years.

Dean Parker stated that other institutions having housing problems resort to renting motels or having entering students defer a year in exchange for not having to pay the cost for room.

"The ideal is that [we want] classes to be even … [We want] an equilibrium," said Parker, noting that the College tries to avoid drastic change in the size of the College and the size of the freshman class.