If all goes according to plan, the class matriculating this September will be the largest in five years.
However, the large number of students are among the best and brightest in the country. Reflecting this is the fact that the College admitted the lowest number of students in five years, as well.
The College invited a total of 2,186 applicants to attend the College this year. Of this number, 433 were accepted early decision in December.
As of the middle of May, 1,136 students -- 579 men and 557 women, the largest number of women attending in history -- had informed the College they would be attending the College Fall term.
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg told The Dartmouth in May that the number of students who intend to enroll typically drops by about 60 people over the summer, as students defer enrollment or change their college plans for other reasons.
The members of the class represent every state except Mississippi, which, according to Furstenberg, is typically not represented at Dartmouth.
New York, Massachusetts and California are sending the most students for any state. Twenty members of the class are from Stuyvesant High School in New York City.
New Hampshire is sending 28 students to the Big Green. In an unusual turn out, eight women from Wyoming also told the College they will be attending.
The students represent a wide variety of scholarly and athletic pursuits. Recruited athletes make up 17 percent of the class, while 29 percent are musically inclined. Ten percent were editors of publications while in high school.
Members of the incoming class will include a volunteer fireman, an auctioneer and a hypnotist. One soon-to-be-student is a vexillologist -- a person who studies flags -- and one is a professional comedian, according to Admissions Office Assistant Rose Murphy.
Furstenberg called the academic achievements of the class "staggering" -- 139 students scored 800 on the verbal part of the SAT, 120 scored 800 on math, and the median SAT scores in both sections were higher than in recent years.
The class of 2002 will be receiving $7.4 million in scholarships, most of which will come from the College's endowment, Furstenberg said. In addition, three students received U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarships.
