AU’s acceptance rate will be 35 percent for the 2019-2020 school year, a six percent increase from the previous year, the University’s admissions office told The Eagle.
This is the first time that AU’s acceptance rate has increased in several years, rising back up to the same percentage as 2015. The increase is due to the University’s expansion of its Honors program as well as the Community-Based Research honors program, said Andrea Felder, AU’s assistant vice provost for undergraduate studies.
“We increased the number of students who we admitted this year because we know that those students will have many options in terms of places where they’ve been admitted to,” Felder said.
However, the class size is expected to remain the same, Felder said. The admissions office received 18,500 applications and admitted 6,515 students.
Out of those accepted, approximately 40 percent of the admitted class lives in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Southern, Western and Northeastern parts of the country each account for around 14 percent of the admitted class.
Additionally women continue to comprise the majority of accepted students, making up approximately 65 percent, of the admitted applicant pool. The demographic makeup of the accepted class of 2023 is 53.9 percent white, a drop from last year when 59 percent of accepted students identified as white. Black students made up 7.3 percent of the class, while Hispanic and Asian students made up 16.9 and 6.1 percent, respectively.
Felder noted that the University saw an increased interest in the School of Public Affairs, which she said “could just be a nod to what’s going on politically.”
These numbers are preliminary and AU will not have a clear picture of the incoming freshman class until May 1 when they must submit their deposits. The University also accounts for a loss of students, known as “melt,” over the summer months.
