U. accepts 5.77 percent of applicants to the Class of 2023

At 7 p.m. tonight, the University will accept 1,152 new students to the Class of 2023, who, along with the 743 students offered admission during the single-choice early action, will comprise the accepted class. Overall, the University accepted 1,895 students out of an applicant pool of 32,804, representing a 5.77 percent acceptance rate.

Of those offered admission, 56 percent have self-identified as people of color and 63 percent went to public high schools. Students come from all 50 states, in addition to Washington, D.C, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Fifty-two percent are women and 48 percent are men.

Jill Dolan, acting dean of admission and dean of the college, commended the admissions staff for their efforts and their commitment to a holistic review of applications.

“We really are interested in where students come from, whether or not we think according to our criteria they’ll thrive at Princeton,” Dolan said. “We’re very interested in the contributions they will make to campus and the ways in which a Princeton education will have an effect on their lives that will let them go on to have an effect on more peoples’ lives.”

The University partners with several organizations to encourage high-achieving low income students, including QuestBridge and Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America. Eighteen percent of admitted students will be the first in their family to attend college. It is expected that around 60 percent will receive financial aid.

Twenty-three percent of admitted students are going to study engineering, and 15 percent are entering the humanities. Eleven percent are children of University alumni.

The expected class size for the Class of 2023 is 1,296 students. Thirty-five of these are expected to defer their enrollment and participate in the University’s Novogratz Bridge Year Program, which allows first-year students to engage in service work in Bolivia, China, India, Indonesia, or Senegal.

The University is hoping to expand the undergraduate class by 500 students, or 125 per class, in the near future. This will start in the fall of 2022, when Perelman College, a new residential facility, is inaugurated. This will allow the admissions office to admit more students.

Elizabeth Colagiuri, acting director of admission and deputy dean of the college, also said she is looking forward to welcoming transfer students. Last year, the University reinstated a transfer admissions program in search of students from low-income backgrounds, community college students, and U.S. military veterans. The deadline for transfer applicants was March 1, and these applicants will be notified of their decision in early May. Twelve transfer students are expected to enroll in the fall of 2019.

Admitted students are invited to attend Princeton Preview, which will take place on April 9–10 and April 15–16. This is an opportunity to sit it on classes, meet current students, go to open houses with academic departments, and get a feel for campus life.

“We want to urge people to come to Preview because our best spokespeople for why anyone should come to Princeton are our students,” Dolan said.

The applicant pool this year was 7.3 percent smaller than that of last year’s, but is still the second largest in the University’s history. The applicant pool included students from 10,813 high schools from 161 countries.

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Admitted students will have until May 1 to inform the University of their enrollment decision.

“My message to admitted students is that we are sure they have lots of choices, and we really hope they choose Princeton because, in our reading of their applications, they are students who would fit well on campus, who would bring a lot to campus, and who would get a lot out of being on campus,” Dolan said.