After a record-setting number of applications, 3,706 first-year students will be welcomed to Grounds this fall as part of the Class of 2020.
The Class of 2020 is slightly more diverse than in years past, which is consistent with a five-year trend in increasing diversity, Dean of Admissions Gregory Roberts said.
“We are thrilled that the incoming class includes so many students from underrepresented backgrounds, and I am personally excited to welcome so many interesting and committed leaders, innovators and thinkers to Grounds,” Roberts said.
The number of minority students has increased nearly 5 percent since 2012 and has increased 1 percent since last year.
The incoming first-year class consists of 31.9 percent minority students. The majority of these students are Asian, accounting for 14 percent of the class. This is a consistent trend, as Asian students have been the largest group of minority students who have enrolled since 2012.
Among other minority first years enrolled at the University, seven percent are African American, six percent are Hispanic and less than one percent are American Indian or Hawaiian. Four percent of incoming students are multiracial.
Seven percent of the Class of 2020 is composed of lower-income students, a slight increase from 2015.
However, while the number of lower-income students slightly increased, the total number of enrolled students who are receiving financial aid is slightly lower than that for the Class of 2019.
Students who are the first in their families to attend college comprise 11 percent of the class, with a total of 411 first-generation students.
While the percentage of first-generation college students has fluctuated over the past five years, the Class of 2020 saw an increase of over two percent from students who enrolled in 2015. This added approximately 81 more first-generation college students to the first-year class.
As a first-generation college student, first-year College student Ayesha Pasha said she was excited to have the college experience and felt the University was the best school for her because of its history of tradition.
Pasha also said having an increased number of first-generation college students on Grounds will be beneficial for the Class of 2020.
“We can all experience college for the first time together, while helping each other along the way,” Pasha said.
Roberts said the University has significantly increased the number of students who are first-generation college students while simultaneously increasing the number of underrepresented minority students.
“We continue to attract the best students from around the state, country and world, and these students bring with them interesting and diverse backgrounds, thoughts, beliefs, opinions and ideas to Grounds,” Roberts said.
The University had a record number of applications this year with a total number of 32,381 applications — around 1,200 more than were submitted for the Class of 2019. The majority of the applicants, 22,715, were out-of-state residents. Of the total number of applications, 9,680 students — approximately 30 percent — were offered enrollment.
Several admission statistics for the incoming first-year class are nearly identical to the Class of 2019, Roberts said.
This class size is consistent with class sizes in the past, increasing from last year’s first-year class by only around 30 students.
In the incoming class, 2,467 students are Virginia residents, accounting for about two-thirds of all incoming first-year students.
The incoming Class of 2020 boasts a mean SAT score of 1346 and a mean high school GPA of 4.24, while 88.2 percent of enrollees were in the top ten percent of their high school graduating class.
“We are excited to watch these students make their mark on U.Va. over the next four years,” Roberts said.
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