UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 1, Page 6
August 31, 1995
Meet the members of the Blue Hen Class of '99

     The Class of 1999 is one of the brightest in recent history with
excellent high school records, according to Bruce Walker, associate
provost for admissions and student financial aid.
     Not only are members of the freshman class poised to be good
students, but they come to the University with a strong desire to give
something back to their community. Of the members of the Class of
1999, 61 percent indicated they wish to be involved in volunteer work
and tutoring, up from 53 percent last year.
     This fall, 3,222 freshmen, up from 3,070 last year, and 610
transfer students will be on the Newark campus. The class includes 50
National Merit, Achievement and Hispanic scholars, 42 valedictorians,
31 salutatorians and 134 students with perfect 4.0 grade point
averages in high school.
     The average Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score of freshmen, on
the re-centered SAT I scale, is 1131, an increase of five points over
last year and well above the national average, Walker said. The
overall high school grade point average was 3.2.
     The University Honors Program will enroll its largest class
ever-with 392 students with SAT scores, on the SAT I scale, averaging
1333, six points above last year. In the Honors Program, 86 percent
have high school grade point averages of 3.5 or above.
     Students are coming to Newark from all over the United
States-from Maine to California, from Florida to Texas, but most are
from the East Coast. Of the new students, 1,070 freshmen (33 percent)
and 238 transfer students (40 percent) are from Delaware. In the
freshman class, New Jersey is second with 696 (22 percent);
Pennsylvania ranks third with 548 students (17 percent); New York is
fourth with 404 students (13 percent); and Maryland follows with 252
students (8 percent). There are 107 students from Connecticut, 39 from
Virginia and 37 from Massachusetts.
     New Castle County high schools are the top 10 in numbers of
freshmen coming to Delaware and include St. Mark's (135 students),
Concord (68), Newark (57), Glasgow (56), Christiana (56), William Penn
(55), Brandywine (55), Salesianum (52), A.I. du Pont (37), Mt.
Pleasant (37) and Dickinson (36).
     There are 43 students coming to Delaware from 23 foreign
countries, including Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Equador,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan,
Korea, Kuwait, Madagascar, Pakistan, Poland, Sweden and Turkey.
     Of the new students, 404 are African-American, Asian, Hispanic or
Native American, an increase of 15 percent over last year. Of these,
191 are African Americans, an increase of 5 percent over last year.
     For the third year in a row, more students answer to Jennifer
(114) and Michael (110), with Brian and Melissa the runners-up.
     Incoming students include four sets of twins, five sets of
siblings who are not twins, one mother and daughter pair and one
husband and wife pair. The oldest entering student is 69 and the
youngest is 16, and 147 students are over the age of 25.
     Of the Class of 1999, three out of four are interested in playing
some sport; and about one quarter say they wish to be involved in
student government.
     Outside high school activities include music (28 percent,
compared to 23 percent last year), school newspaper or yearbook (26
percent) and drama (13 percent). This class is more interested in
academic societies (29 percent) than in social clubs (24 percent).
                                                   -Sue Swyers Moncure