According to UVA Today, the University’s new first-year class is the largest and most diverse in the institution’s two centuries of existence. With over 3,800 students from the Class of 2022 having moved onto Grounds this past weekend, upperclassmen can expect to see additional unfamiliar faces as classes begin and activities resume for the fall semester.
The University reports that 1,310 of its first-year students are minorities, a 35% increase since 2013. Meanwhile, the number of students who indicated on their applications that they are African American or multiracial has climbed by 34%. This year, the latter category is comprised of 352 incoming first-years, or about 9% of the Class of 2022.
Dean of Undergraduate Admission Gregory Roberts expressed his satisfaction with the new first-years, describing them as a group of “inspiring” and “remarkable” young adults.
“Academically, they are as accomplished as any class in University history, but what impressed us the most was an almost universal individual commitment by each student to make the lives of those around them better,” Roberts told UVA Today. “Even though they arrive from different backgrounds and neighborhoods, and come with different plans and ideas, they seem united in their interest in community engagement, social justice and the common good.”
Other statistics released by the University include a gender breakdown of 56% female students and 44% male students in the Class of 2022, a mean SAT score of 1397, and a first-generation population comprised of 424 first-years — which is 77 more than there were in the Class of 2017.
President James Ryan, who was a first-generation college student himself when he entered Yale University as an undergraduate, told the Class of 2022 that he understands the apprehension and nervousness that they might be experience.
“I remember when I arrived on campus my freshman year, it was like landing on a different planet – one where I didn’t know the customs and didn’t feel like I fit in very well,” he said at the 2018 UVA Convocation.“So understand this – you belong here. Whoever you are and wherever you are from.”
To read more about the Class of 2022, click here.
