U. yield reaches 68.5 percent for Class of 2020

With 1,323 students having committed to the University, the Class of 2020 yield rate currently stands at 68.5 percent, Dean of Admission Janet Rapelyesaid.

The 1,323 students include 40 students who deferred admission from previous years and 14 students who were admitted this year and have already deferred to the Class of 2021, Rapelye explained.

She noted that this number is subject to slight change as students notify the Admission Office of their intent to take a gap year.

Although the numbers are not final, Rapelye noted that she can safely say that the 68.5 percent yield is the highest the University has had in many years.

“We’re in a very good spot,” Rapelye said of the current number of incoming students for the Class of 2020. The target class size is 1,308, she added.

The final yield for the Class of 2019 was 67.7 percent, the yield the previous year was 66.2 percent and the yield the year prior was 65.8 percent, Rapelye said.

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Rapelye explained that the Tiger Tuesday event in February and reinstating the overnight program for Princeton Preview were both helpful in achieving the yield. She said that there were many outreach efforts this year, including a campaign for sending handwritten notes to students.

In the group of 1,323 students who have accepted the offer of admission, 51.5 percent are male and 48.5 percent are female, Rapelye said. She added that 42 percent of the class self-identify as minorities or students of color, including those who identify as multiracial.

According to Rapelye, there are 163 international citizens in the Class of 2020, currently representing 12.3 percent of the class, though this does not include U.S. citizens living abroad. She said that the states with the most representation are New Jersey, New York and California.

In addition, the Class of 2020 has 227 recruited athletes, though some of these athletes had deferred their admission from a previous year, Rapelye explained. 14.4 percent of the Class of 2020 are legacies, indicating that a mother, father, stepmother or stepfather attended Princeton.

Rapelye explained that it is too early to tell if the University will accept students from its waitlist. She noted that there is always some “summer melt” – a term used in admissions to describe students who choose not to enroll over the summer, for a variety of reasons that could include choosing to go to another school or electing to defer their admission for a year.

Rapelye added that a report containing the final yield information will be released in September.