Princeton extended offers of admission to the Class of 2021 to 1,890 students March 30 — and in a first for the University, more women than men were admitted. The acceptance rate, 6.1 percent of the record 31,056 applicants, is the lowest in the University’s history. The rate last year was 6.46 percent.
Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said 18 more women than men were admitted, for 50.5 percent of the total. She said the female/male ratio for admitted students has been running close to 50/50 in recent years and “there was no intent this year other than to admit the very best class.” She added that “many of our peers crossed this line a number of years ago.”
Among those admitted, 53.4 percent self-identified as racial or ethnic minorities, 10.7 percent are legacies, 63.8 percent attend public schools, and 40.7 percent were admitted from the early-action pool. Rapelye said 18.9 percent will be the first in their families to attend college — a record for Princeton. The target size for the class is 1,308 students.
International students representing 76 countries make up 12.1 percent of admitted students, and Rapelye said the University will be watching for effects of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Among peer schools, Stanford reported an admission rate of 4.65 percent, Harvard 5.2 percent, and Yale 6.9 percent.
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2 Responses
Eric Nauenberg ’86
7 Years AgoIdentifying Race, Ethnicity
I read with interest the story regarding students offered admission at Princeton for the Class of 2021 (On the Campus, April 26). In particular, I was intrigued by the statistic that 53.4 percent of admits self-declared as a racial or ethnic minority, which I find troubling. I simply don’t believe that this group represents students who may come from such backgrounds or from particular communities. I would presume that the correct percentage of admits who truly live within and identify with a particular racial or ethnic group is probably more like 15 to 20 percent, but this is just a guess.
Like many of my colleagues in health-services research, I now try to avoid using variables that identify race or ethnicity, as these have become meaningless in a world in which we have a growing number of mixed-race/mixed-ethnicity households that may or may not identify or live within a particular community. I suggest that without some additional information over and above self-declaration, this information is largely worthless for the admission process at select institutions like Princeton.
I would suggest that the admission office consider adopting a process of cross-checking self-identified racial or ethnic declarations against the ZIP code or postal code of the admission candidate’s residence. Both the U.S. Census and Statistics Canada are able to identify those codes largely associated with disproportionate ethnic/racial compositions which, to some extent, the self-declaration is designed to identify. I thus would try to cross-reference the self-declaration with at least this added bit of information in the future.
Eric Nauenberg ’86
7 Years AgoRace and Ethnicity in Admission
Published online July 6, 2017
I read with interest the story regarding students offered admission at Princeton for the Class of 2021 (On the Campus, April 26). In particular, I was intrigued by the statistic that 53.4 percent of admits self-declared as a racial or ethnic minority, which I find troubling. I simply don’t believe that this group represents students who may come from such backgrounds or from particular communities. I would presume that the correct percentage of admits who truly live within and identify with a particular racial or ethnic group is probably more like 15 to 20 percent, but this is just a guess.
As many of my colleagues in health-services research, I now try to avoid using variables that identify race or ethnicity, as these have become meaningless in a world in which we have a growing number of mixed-race/mixed-ethnicity households that may or may not identify or live within a particular community. In essence, these variables have become meaningless, and I suggest that without some additional information over and above self-declaration, this information is largely worthless for the admission process at select institutions like Princeton.
I would suggest that the admission office consider adopting a process of cross-checking self-identified racial or ethnic declarations against the zip code or postal code of the admission candidate’s residence. Both the U.S. Census and Statistics Canada are able to identify those codes largely associated with disproportionate ethnic/racial compositions which, to some extent, the self-declaration is designed to identify. I thus would try to cross-reference the self-declaration with at least this added bit of information in the future.