<p>I don’t have all these stats in hand at the present time and couldn’t release them in a detailed way even if I did, so let me just give you the big picture. Our applicant pool was down 1%, (to about 7880) which was not a source of concern for us. We were seeking a larger class than last year but at the present time have we have a sizably larger number of deposits than we had even hoped for. Time will tell how much “summer melt” will reduce the size of the class (when other colleges take people off wait lists and they withdraw from UR) but it will be closer to 900 students than to the 850 we were aiming for. Don’t panic, incoming freshmen, we’ll be able to house you all, because last year’s entering first year class was smaller than desired, and because we opened a new dorm last year. The plan had been to shut down an older dorm for a year of rehab, but that can wait when we’re in this situation (and the dorm is still plenty livable). All this does mean we’re unlikely to need our wait list, but again, if things start “melting” my prediction on this could be off the mark. </p>
<p>The yield improved by about 3.5% over the previous year but we did take more through ED than in the past, so some of that figure is based on higher ED enrollments. This increased yield was the surprise–we’d expected it might go down a bit because of the economic situation, so the good news is that our financial aid packaging really made it possible for more than we predicted to choose UR. So that is something we’re delighted about! I don’t know if the recession helped or hurt us–we’ll certainly be spending more in aid than in the past but that’s OK–we’re happy to do that and can afford it. But I do know there were individual families who didn’t choose UR because of finances when in the past they might have done so, and we hate to lose those folks. The economy hurt them and changed their student’s outcome even if Richmond has a fine class and will be OK. I don’t like how it worked out for some individuals, in other words, more than how it impacted UR. </p>
<p>We’re delighted with the quality and diversity of the class. It will be the most racially and ethnically diverse class in our history (approx. 21% non-white) and we’ve also enrolled the highest number (54) of international students in our history (but probably not percentage-wise given the larger denominator). About 20% are also first-generation college (that figure inevitably includes some cross-over with the previous two populations, so you can’t just add them all together or you’ll double count some people). </p>
<p>I don’t know much about what happened at our cross-over schools this early, but lots of them do appear to be going to their wait lists. They were perhaps more conservative on the front end when making their offers. I hope this helps!</p>
<p>P.S. to Investor–that profile on the website is LAST year’s entering class profile, not this year’s. We won’t post the new stats for some time so we can see about the melt.</p>