Record Number of Applicants Produce Highest-Ever SAT Scores and Selectivity New York University President L. Jay Oliva today announced that NYU has offered admission to its most selective freshmen class ever. Out of a record 28,979 prospective freshman applicants, the University has offered spots in the next freshman class to some 31 percent, its lowest-ever acceptance rate. All students should have their letters by tomorrow, April 1; students must reply by May 1.
The University expects to enroll some 3,400 freshmen next year. Those accepted for admission for next fall had the highest average SAT scores of any group offered admissions as NYU freshman: the average score, 1345, was some 15 points higher than last year’s freshman class.
Those accepted include candidates from all 50 states and 36 foreign countries. Some 60 percent were women, and some 40 percent were men. Over 37 percent were people of color.
The admissions data for the NYU Class of 2003 continues an 8-year trend of increasingly greater numbers of applicants, lower acceptance rates and higher average SAT scores for freshmen. Since 1991, applications to NYU have increased nearly 200 percent - from 10,000 to 28,979 - and the acceptance rate has declined from 65 percent to 31 percent. During this same period, the number of high school graduates nation-wide increased by only some 10 percent.
Dr. Oliva said, “For those in higher education, this is one of the most exciting times of the year. We are just as eager about the young people to whom we have offered freshman spots as they are about hearing from us.
“I grew up in New York, and I have been at this University for nearly forty years. It is simply wonderful to know that so many talented young people want to come to this city and to this University to study. The three-way match offered by NYU, this city, and the potential of these fine young men and women holds incalculable promise.”
New York University is one of the largest private universities in the U.S., and it has the largest population of international students of any U.S. college or university. Based in New York City’s historic Greenwich Village, NYU has some 13 colleges and schools that conduct cutting-edge research and provide education in the arts and sciences, law, medicine, dentistry, business, nursing, education, the cinematic and performing arts, social work, and public service and administration, among other areas.