The University welcomed the class of 2007 last week at new student orientation, which introduced 1,680 freshmen and transfer students to campus. All students applying for college last spring faced strong competitive for acceptance, and those applying to the University were no exception.

Dean of Enrollment Management Stephen Merritt provided an overview of how the incoming freshmen were selected.

This year’s class was pulled from a pool of 10,900 applications. The class had a middle 50 percent SAT range of 1190-1330 and GPA range of 3.42-3.86 on a 4.00 scale. Over 70 percent of all ranked students in the freshman class were in the top 19 percent of their high school graduating class.

Though the University has continued to find ways to increase diversity, about 85 percent of new students are white. Students came from 39 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Students also came from 20 nations including Denmark, Costa Rica, China, Israel, Japan, Poland, Kenya, Spain and Zimbabwe.

Entering students were also accomplished outside the classroom. Many were class and organization presidents and officers, team captains, members of the National Honor Society, musicians, writers, poets and participants in public and school service. This fall, approximately 65 percent of all entering freshman received some form of financial assistance.

The new students spent the week adjusting.

“College is a really different atmosphere from high school, but definitely something I could get used to,” one freshman said.