Of the record 8,338 students who applied to Hamilton for the Class of 2023, 16.1 percent — or 1,345 students — were accepted, a record-low percentage.
24 percent of the College’s Class of 2021 were accepted. The next year, the 21 percent of the then-record 6,240 students who applied were accepted to the Class of 2022. Around 480 of these students will matriculate into Hamilton College’s Class of 2023 in the fall.
The decreased acceptance rate is unsurprising after the College saw a record number of students apply for admission. In order to ensure continuing growth in applicants, the College has improved its recruiting methods in previously-underrepresented areas, such as in the Midwest, California, and outside the US.
This strategy yielded a 34 percent increase in applicants, in addition to acceptances of students from 47 different states and 30 different countries. These students engaged with Hamilton through in-person or online alumni interviews and through online campus tours. Hamilton’s admissions representatives also increased their visits to college fairs and schools around the world.
Accepted students for the Class of 2023 represent Hamilton’s most diverse pool ever, with 33 percent of those accepted identifying as people of color. This is a 6 percent increase from the 27 percent of students of color in the Class of 2022. Around 56 percent of accepted students identify as women and 44 percent as men.
According to Vice President for Enrollment Management Monica Inzer, “This is the most talented group academically based on everything we can measure.”
Those accepted boast an average ACT score of 33 and SAT score of 1474. Of the 33 percent of admitted students whose schools provide rankings, 87 percent rank in the top 10 percent of their class.
Inzer, however downplays the raw application statistics saying, “We try not to get caught up in the numbers […] The best measure of success is the class we bring in […] if our retention isn’t good then I’m not doing my job.”
One major change to admissions came with the decision to stop partnering with Boston Posse. The Class of 2023 will feature only 10 students from the Posse program, all from Miami. According to Monica Inzer part of the reason for this development was to “diversify our diversity initiatives […] and to make room for other partnerships and other forms of diversity.”
One such partnership is with the program Questbridge, which is in its second year working with the College. 600 students applied from this program for the Class of 2022, and for the Class of 2023, the number rose to 800. Four more Questbridge Scholars from the Class of 2023 have already been matched with Hamilton compared to last year’s class. One other change the Office of Admissions undertook this year was to allow students to self-report their test scores with the goal of avoiding the College Board’s fees for reporting scores to colleges.
Now that the Office of Admissions has sent out acceptance notices, their job is to attract as many students to the school as possible. Accepted students have until May 1 to decide if they are going to enroll.
Before they make their final decision, they will have the option to attend Accepted Students Day and learn more about Hamilton. Inzer says she can’t wait to meet these “incredible admitted students who I know will change our world for the better.”
