Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Tom Parker said that the College is aiming for a class of 423 students, up from a target of 416 last year.
Of this year's accepted students, 50.3 percent are women and 49.7 percent are men. According to Parker, each year the admissions staff tries to keep the male-to-female ratio fairly even. This is the sixth consecutive year that the College has accepted more women than men.
Approximately one third (131) of the class of 2008 were early decision applicants. There were 334 early decision applicants and an early decision acceptance rate of 39.2 percent.
Parker explained that the higher early decision acceptance rate is due to a higher percentage of athletes and children of alumni in the applicant pool. "There is a higher representation of athletes and legacies in early decision than in the overall pool," said Parker. "More than half of the athletes who we accept apply early decision."
Parker emphasized that accepted legacies had SAT scores comparable to non-legacy students who were admitted. The percentage of legacies receiving letters of acceptance this year was higher than average. The College accepted 67 out of 135 legacy applicants, approximately 49.6 percent.
Parker said he believes that the higher acceptance rate of legacies can be attributed to the counseling opportunities available to them through alumni outreach programs.
Parker explained that, through personal meetings with admissions officers and organized programs such as Dean's Day, legacies get an in-depth look at the College and are advised of the likelihood of their acceptance. These opportunities, according to Parker, discourage less qualified legacies from applying, making the legacy pool much stronger as a whole.
"I do a lot of counseling," said Parker. "The 50 percent admit rate is misleading because legacies have been counseled and many decide that Amherst is not the place for them."
Parker emphasized the importance of achieving diversity in the class of 2008. Over 12 percent of admitted students self-identified as African-American, 15.8 percent of students as Asian-American, 10.6 percent as Latino, 0.48 percent as Native American, and eight percent as students of mixed heritage. Non-U.S. citizens compose 5.6 percent of the class. The remaining 47.2 percent of students are Caucasian or chose not to identify their background.
Further diversity is reflected in the variety of high schools represented by the admitted students. Sixty-four percent of the students attend public high schools, 29.6 percent attend private schools, 5.6 percent attend parochial schools and 0.39 percent are home schooled.
Parker said he does not believe that the construction and housing changes negatively affected the quality of this year's applicants. Tours of the College were altered due to construction and prospective students were not able to see the College in its "prime beauty," according to Parker.
However inconvenient the construction has been, Parker is excited for students to have improved housing. "I am very happy to be able to say that our students' living space is going to be comparable to our peer schools," said Parker. "All of our housing will be united by a residential philosophy that recognizes that we are a co-ed, non-fraternity institution and accommodates that."
Once students are accepted and commit to matriculation, Charri Boykin-East, dean of residential life, must assign them rooms and roommates. The process begins with a housing questionnaire that is sent to these students in the spring. "We use the questionnaires to try to match people with what they are looking for," said Boykin-East. "We first address and take care of students with medical concerns."
Boykin-East thinks that most people are content with the roommates that the College assigns the first-year. Nearly every student in the class of 2008 will have a roommate. Students will live in Appleton Hall, North and South Dormitories, The Plaza and The Waldorf, which are all one-room doubles. They will also live in Pratt Dormitory and Valentine Hall.
Boykin-East said she tries to match people based upon tidiness and sleeping habits, but seeks to put people with diverse backgrounds together. "I like to mix people up. They should have a diversity of interests," she said. "Also geographical diversity-especially in triples I like to have at least one person who lives close [to the College]."
According to Boykin-East, there are very few problems reported due to roommate troubles, which she believes is partially because of the personal attention devoted to each set of roommates. "I think that it is great that we do this by hand, not computer," said Boykin-East. "It helps us to make good decisions on a personal level and gives it a personal touch."