DePauw’s class of 2020 sits at 581 students as of the May 1 deadline. At this time last year, the total number of incoming first-year students was 612.
President-elect Mark McCoy informed the faculty of this decrease in incoming students during the faculty meeting on Monday afternoon. He noted at the meeting that totals would not be released until after the deadline for deposits, which was at midnight on Tuesday morning. What he gathered from the information that had come in, however, was that the Office of Admissions was “running behind” on the size of, and the revenue collected from, the incoming class. DePauw shoots for classes of 650, but McCoy shared that they would not meet this goal.
McCoy also shared that the number of students paying full tuition was down. He said most of the early deposits were from “less well-to-do” applicants, showing their desire for a DePauw education. Wealthier applicants had yet to send in deposits.
Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid Cindy Babington suspects the number of incoming students to increase over the summer.
“It’s not unusual for these numbers to be 20-30 students higher by the start of school in the fall.”
Despite the dip in the number of students enrolled from last year to this year, the class of 2020 is not the smallest in recent years: the class of 2018 totaled only 514 by May 1. Compared to the past ten years, however, the Class of 2020 stands as the third smallest number of students enrolled by this time.
Babington also noted that, as of now, the Class of 2020 “is diverse, with 22 percent of the class being domestic students of color and another 13 percent being international students from 23 different countries”.
This incoming class is more diverse than the university as a whole; on average, DePauw has 19 percent enrollment for domestic students of color and 8 percent international student enrollment. As far as the gender balance, however, the incoming class is identical to DePauw as a whole: 54 percent are female, while 46 percent are male.
Babington said information regarding how the Class of 2020 compares to previous classes in terms of cumulative high school GPA and test scores will be calculated in the next week.