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| Vol. 19, No. 1 | Sept. 2, 1999 |
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| Vol. 19, No. 1 | Sept. 2, 1999 |
The Class of 2003 at Convocation in Bob Carpenter Center
The last UD freshman class of the century, numbering 3,551 students, began arriving on campus Aug. 28, along with 478 transfer students for a total of 4,052 new students. They range in age from 15 to 76, with the medium age of 18.4 years.
"This year, we required essays and recommendations as part of the application process, which allowed us to be more precise and selective in the admissions process," Frederic Siegel, enrollment services, said. "As a result, the members of the freshman class have higher SAT scores-1145 as compared to 1138 in 1998-higher high school grade point averages and higher class rankings.
"We told high school students that our admission standards were tougher this year, and this discouraged some marginal students from applying. Although we had fewer applicants overall, the students who did apply were better qualified.
"After last year's exceptionally large freshman class of more than 3,600 students, we deliberately admitted fewer students-15 percent fewer-and our goal was a class of 3,250. However, because UD is the school of choice for so many students, the freshman class numbers more than 3,500. This year, two out of five, or 40 percent of those admitted, have chosen to come to UD, versus one out of three two years ago," Siegel said.
The new class includes 40 valedictorians, 31 salutatorians and 200 students with high school grade point averages of 4.00. Some 508 students enrolled in the University Honors program.
Among the freshmen are 1,130 from Delaware, 786 students from New Jersey, 664 from Pennsylvania, 462 from New York and 271 from Maryland. Most students come from Mid-Atlantic states, but there are eight students from the Virgin Islands.
There are 39 freshman and transfer students from 20 foreign countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Burma and Nigeria. Five students are from Korea and Sweden, and four are from Switzerland.
In terms of ethnic diversity, the incoming students include 194 African Americans, 108 Asian Americans, 91 Latino Americans and 12 Native Americans.
Applying over the World Wide Web is increasingly popular-with 2,303 freshmen, as compared to 1,694 last year, and 948 transfer students, as compared to 699 last year-applying electronically to UD.
As in past years, St. Mark's High School has the most graduates (120) in the freshman class. Newark High School and Concord High School each have 62 graduates, followed by Christiana High School with 57, William Penn High School with 55, Glasgow High School with 50, Brandywine High School with 47, Mount Pleasant with 46, Salesianum School with 40, and John Dickinson High School and Alexis I. du Pont High School each with 38.
For seven years running, Jennifer remains the most popular name for women and Michael is the most popular for men in the freshman class, but the numbers have dropped from previous years. Lauren is again the runner-up name for women, but this year Matthew has replaced Christopher as the men's runner-up.
Approximately 1,800 freshmen have been involved in volunteer work or service clubs. Other activities included academic clubs (769), student government (766), school publications (728), music (580), drama (438), radio broadcasting (402) and tutoring (338). In sports, 423 played soccer, 313 competed in track and cross country, 283 played basketball and 274 played volleyball. Lacrosse, tennis and swimming were other popular sports.
Statistics about the incoming students are subject to a slight change as the academic year gets under way. Official enrollment figures will be available in October. 
-Sue Moncure
Photo by Jack Buxbaum
