By Richard P. Morin
The Class of 2000 - all 1,535 of them - will be Brown's largest entering freshman class in 30 years. The 54 percent yield, the number of students accepted who matriculate, was a pleasant surprise to many University officials.
"When Yale and Princeton went to early decision, we expected the yield to go up," said Michael Goldberger, director of admissions. "But we thought it would go up by 1 or 2 percent. It is 6 percent higher than last year and 9 1/2 percent higher than it was four years ago. It was quite a surprise."
Why such a jump? "The flip or easy answer is to say that we did such a great job in the admissions office," said Goldberger. "But in reality it will really take some time to see if we are different from other similar institutions." Even so, he said, "it is a nice statement about Brown and where we are going with our educational philosophy."
The admissions office received a record-setting 15,009 applications for the Class of 2000. "We are seeing record-breaking year after record-breaking year for applications to Brown," said Goldberger. "Some of it has to do with Brown, but it is really a combination of things. The kids are getting more nervous about where they are going to get in. They are hearing stories about the changing demographics - that there are fewer kids than 15 years ago and that there are more chances of getting into places where they wouldn't have before. And the other thing is financial aid - people want to have more options."
Anthony Canchola-Flores, director of financial aid, agreed. "By far this has been the toughest year in terms of negotiating," he said. "Parents are more aggressive, but we kept to our goals."
Thirty-eight percent of the Class of 2000 will receive financial aid. Although people were quick to ask for more money or play one school off another, most parents and incoming students seem happy with their package, said Canchola-Flores.
With such a large positive response, the wait list has all but been eliminated for fall, according to Goldberger. The University also may have to alter its acceptance of transfers and other special students. A decision on those matters has yet to be made, Goldberger said.
Currently, the Class of 2000 contains 840 women and 695 men. They represent 47 states, with South Dakota, Mississippi and Wyoming being the only states not sending students to College Hill. (The top five states are New York, Massachusetts, California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Rhode Island has 63 students in the Class of 2000.)
There are 105 African-American, 217 Asian-American, 96 Latino, 9 Native American and 1,108 non-minority students in the incoming class.
The Class of 2000 also represents 42 countries, with Canada, Greece, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and Republic of Singapore leading the way.
Of those matriculating, 37 percent have indicated an interest in the sciences, 23 percent in the humanities, 14 percent in the social sciences, 10 percent in engineering and 15 percent are undecided.