Wooster Receives More Than 6,000 Applications for Admission, a New High

WOOSTER, Ohio – For the first time in its 152-year history, The College of Wooster has received more than 6,000 applications for admission to next fall’s entering class, a nine percent increase over last year’s record number. More than 70 percent of those applications come from outside the state of Ohio, including more than 1,500 international applications, also a new record.

“More and more students – and their parents – are recognizing the value of attending America’s premier college for mentored research,” said Scott Friedhoff, vice president for enrollment and college relations.

The 6,073 applicants hail from all 50 states and 115 other countries, from Argentina (with two applications) to Zimbabwe (with 53).
Wooster’s international applications have been growing steadily, from just under 700 five years ago to 1,504 this year, as has the college’s international enrollment. That strength bucks the national trend; last fall almost half of U.S. universities reported a drop in the number of new international students they enrolled.
“Students applied from across the street and across the globe,” Friedhoff said, “including one from Perth, on the west coast of Australia, which is more than 18,000 miles away as the crow flies. A very tired crow.”
They are vying for approximately 560 spots in the first-year class, and the college in turn is vying with other highly-selective schools to enroll them.
“The competition for the best-fit students is fierce,” he continued. “Our applicants are also applying to places like Macalester, Grinnell, Kenyon, Skidmore, and Bates. So, it’s critically important that they come visit our campus to experience the terrific culture that is uniquely Wooster.” Many will be doing just that over the coming weeks.
The College of Wooster is America’s premier college for mentored undergraduate research. Wooster offers an excellent, comprehensive liberal arts education, culminating in a rigorous senior project, in which each student works one-on-one with a faculty mentor to conceive, organize and complete a significant research project on a topic of the student’s own choosing. Through this distinctive program, every Wooster student develops abilities valued by employers and graduate schools alike: independent judgment, analytical ability, creativity, project-management and time-management skills, and strong written and oral communication skills. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 2,000 students.

Posted in News on March 19, 2018.