Guest Blogger 2 - Scott Alexander
Hello. My name is Scott Alexander, Associate Director of Admission and Coordinator of International Admission. During my eight years at Connecticut College, I interviewed 849 prospective students and conducted secondary school presentations 564 times. My recruitment travels include visits to 32 countries and 17 states. As you can see, I like numbers. Here are some factoids about the applications and applicants to the Class of 2012.
Number of applications for the Class of 2012: 4,716
Number of applicants from the southern hemisphere: 67
Most applications received in a single day: 908 (on December 15th)
Date when the first applicant applied to the Class of 2012: April 30th, 2007
Enrollment deadline for the Class of 2011: May 1st, 2007
Percent increase in applications since 1998: 38%
Increase in applications from Jamaica since last year: 350%
Number of high schools represented in applicant pool: 1,885
Largest number of applicants from a single high school: 32 (Lexington High School, MA)
Type of high schools attended by applicants: Public 49%
Independent 31%
International 11%
Religious 9%
Number of U.S. states represented by high school location: 47 (plus DC & Puerto Rico)
Top five U.S. states represented by high school location: MA, NY, CT, CA, NJ
Regional percentages for applicants’ high schools: New England 40%
Mid-Atlantic 29%
International 11%
West 10%
Mid-West 6%
South 4%
Regional percentages for international school applicants: Africa 15%
Asia 49%
Canada 3%
Europe 24%
Latin America & the Caribbean 8%
Oceania 1%
Number of countries represented by applicants’ passports: 100
Five most frequent citizenships besides American: Chinese, Vietnamese, Canadian, British, Nepalese
Percentage of first-generation college applicants: 11%
Most frequent birthday for applicants: April 10 & April 19, 1990 (tie) (22 each)
Most frequent Western zodiac sign for applicants: Aries
Common attributes associated to Aries: natural, confident leaders
Most common Chinese zodiac sign for applicants: Horse
Common attributes associated to Horse: cheerful, quick-witted, earthy, agile
Ten most common first names for applicants: Sara(h), K/Catherine (or Kathryn), Eliza- or Elisabeth, Emily, Michael, Jessica, Rebecca, Mat(t)hew, Rebecca, Alexandra, Alexander
Ten most common family names for applicants: Brown, Smith, Miller, Lee, Johnson, Nguyen, Chen, Liu, Wang, Williams