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February 9, 2012

Applications, quality continue upward trend

Both the size and quality of Pitt’s freshman classes continue to rise, with the 2011 entering class slightly bigger and better qualified when compared with the entering class in 2010.

Likewise, the University’s pool of applicants is up 3.5 percent — rising from 22,616 in fall 2010 to 23,409 applicants for the current academic year.

Betsy Porter, director of the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, credited “institutional momentum” as the force behind the increases.

Freshman class profile.pptFor fall term 2011, 13,544 freshmen were admitted, an increase of 478 over 2010’s 13,066 freshman admissions.

Of the freshmen admitted for fall 2011, 3,768 paid a deposit and 3,721 ultimately enrolled at the University. Freshman class profile.pptIn 2010, 3,750 paid deposits and 3,715 ultimately enrolled at Pitt.

More striking are the 2011 results compared with 1995 when 6,193 freshmen were admitted out of 7,825 applicants and 2,424 students paid deposits. Freshman class profile.ppt(Figures are not available for the number who ultimately enrolled for fall 1995.)

In recent years, every year has been a record year in terms of the number of students applying to Pitt, Porter said. “This just didn’t happen in one year, it’s been incremental over time. But, cumulatively, to compare now to 1995, the difference is remarkable.”

Pitt trustees in February 1996 approved a multifaceted resolution aimed in part at making the quality of Pitt’s undergraduate education competitive with the best public universities. (See Feb. 29, 1996, University Times.)

“The success story in admissions and financial aid is an institutional success story. Everyone’s been doing their part for a lot of years,” said Porter, who has led OAFA since 1986.

Porter, who plans to retire this summer after 34 years at Pitt, stopped short of labeling recruitment easy, but said Pitt’s momentum has made it easier to recruit high-quality students. “Now we’re in a position where we can select the freshman class out of a very large number of undergraduate applicants,” she said.

Class rank distributions rose slightly this academic year: 79 percent of Pitt freshmen were ranked in the top 20 percent of their high school class and 54 percent were in the top 10 percent. That’s up from 78 percent and 51 percent, respectively, for fall 2010, and much higher than the 1995 freshman class, of which 39 percent were in the top 20 percent and 19 percent were in the top 10 percent.

Freshman grade point averages also were higher for the fall 2011 freshman class. Applicants averaged 3.74, admits averaged 3.95 and those who paid deposits averaged 3.94, based on weighted GPAs supplied by their high schools or calculated by OAFA based on students’ high school profile. In 2010 applicants averaged a 3.67 GPA with admits averaging 3.93 and paid deposits averaging 3.91.

The upper range of the mid-50 percent in SAT combined math and critical reading scores rose in 2011 with the middle half of the freshman class scoring 1190-1360 on their SATs. That compares with 1190-1350 in 2010 and 1010-1200 in 1995. (To facilitate comparison, the 1995 figures have been recalculated to reflect that year’s re-centering of SAT scores by the College Board.)

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Although Pitt continues to draw the bulk of its undergraduates from Pennsylvania, the state — and the northeastern United States overall — continues to see a decline in the number of high school graduates. “Obviously, we need to do more with other areas of the country to replace the loss,” Porter said. Compounding the squeeze is the fact that public universities in other states increasingly are joining private schools in recruiting nationally. “They’re all our competitors,” she said.

Of the 65 percent of Pitt freshmen who are from Pennsylvania, 15 percent are from Allegheny County. Porter said Pitt recruiters still spend the majority of their time and resources in Pennsylvania “and that’s where the majority of Pitt students still will come from,” but additional attention is being paid to California and Texas — areas in which the University has seen increasing recruiting success, she said.

In Pitt’s favor, when recruiting nationally, “We have a brand out there that people know. We’re not going out there for the first time,” Porter said.

In addition to Pitt’s national and international reputation as a high-quality public research institution, word-of-mouth from out-of-state students who have graduated from Pitt and returned home to work has helped boost regard for the University. “The experience has been validated,” Porter said.

Another factor in recruitment is campus visits, Porter said. “It’s not just us going out. People want to see, touch, hear, talk to students and faculty, look at the dorm rooms, walk around campus. After visiting they make an emotional-intellectual judgment about that experience,” she said.

Porter acknowledged there are huge stakes involved in choosing a college and parents want to make informed decisions.

“Hundreds of those parents are taking this seriously on tours: They will visit 8-10 schools and do vetting on those schools, then decide on where to apply. We are attracting thousands to the Pitt campus and a very high percentage of those apply for admission,” she said.

Underlying the University’s recruitment efforts is a commitment to quality and diversity, Porter said.

“What [students] receive is what they and their parents expect: a high-quality undergraduate educational experience” both in and outside the classroom.

—Kimberly K. Barlow


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