Class of 2008 sets new records

10:47 a.m., Aug. 27, 2004--Saturday, Aug. 28, marks a milestone for 3,469 freshmen and 577 transfer students as they arrive in Newark to embark on their college careers at UD this fall.

“The Class of 2008 represents another record-setting entering class at UD, with the highest average SATs, class rank and average high school GPAs of any class that we have ever enrolled,” Lou Hirsh, director of admissions, said.

“This continues a recent trend of enrolling academically stronger entering classes. In the five years between 1999 and 2004, the average SATs of entering UD freshmen have climbed 44 points,” he said.

“The Class of 2008 is among the most diverse in our history as well. For the second year in a row, we will be enrolling more than 500 students of color in our freshman class.

“Once again, we set a record for applications: We received over 22,200 applications for fall freshman admission. The University of Delaware also has emerged as the first-choice college for the majority of our entering freshmen,” Hirsh said. “Of the freshmen who will be joining us this fall, 64 percent identified the University of Delaware as their first-choice college, including 61 percent of out-of-state freshmen and 71 percent of Delawareans.

“In fact,” Hirsh said, “many of our most outstanding candidates listed Delaware as their first choice. We were the first choice of over one-third of our enrollees with SATs between 1400 and 1600 and nearly 56 percent of our enrollees with SATs of 1200 or higher. Nearly half of the 66 valedictorians and salutatorians who are joining us this fall had Delaware designated as their first choice college on their applications for admission.“

The new students come from all over the United States and from eight foreign countries with 1,252 freshmen from Delaware, followed by New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland.

There also are 341 students enrolled in the Associate in Arts Program in Wilmington, Dover and Georgetown.

From an ethnic viewpoint, 121 are Asian Americans, 204 are African Americans, 164 are Hispanic/Latino Americans, 10 are Native Americans/Alaskan Natives and eight are Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Americans.

The class includes 34 valedictorians, 32 salutatorians and 435 freshmen with a 4.0 grade point. The average SAT score is 1189, and 443 freshmen are enrolled in the Honors Program.

Most Delaware freshmen are graduates of St. Mark’s High School (98), Charter School of Wilmington (91), Newark (81), Salesianum (62), Middletown (61), Thomas McKean (60), Brandywine (57), Alexis I. du Pont (53), Caesar Rodney (48) and William Penn (45) high schools.

There also are 412 legacies, or sons and daughters of alumni, including 120 children of Double Dels (with both parents being UD alumni).

The majority of freshmen (1,306) are enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences, followed by the Lerner College of Business and Economics (445), the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy (359), the College of Engineering (345), the College of Health and Nursing Sciences (319) and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (123).

University Studies students, those who have not declared a major, number 572. Popular majors include business administration, biological sciences, elementary teacher education, psychology, nursing, mechanical engineering, communication, English and political science.

Extracurricular activities that most interest freshmen are sports (57 percent), volunteer work/community service (53 percent), social clubs (36 percent), academic clubs (27 percent), student government (18 percent), music (18 percent), newspaper/yearbook (17 percent) and theatre (11 percent).

Nine sets of twins are among the freshmen. The youngest freshman was born in 1988; the oldest in 1935, and the average age of the Class of 2008, as of Aug. 30, is 18 years, 4 months and 20 days.

Matthew and Michael (81 each) tie for first place as the most popular men’s names, while Lauren (69) and Jessica (60) are the most popular women’s names.

Statistics about incoming students are subject to slight changes as the academic year gets under way. Official enrollment figures will be available in October.

Article by Sue Moncure

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