UPDATE: A previous version of this article contained an statistic incorrectly reported to the Daily by the Office of Admissions. The article initially reported that 36 percent of students admitted to the Class of 2021 applied for need-based financial aid, but the actual number is 48 percent.
Tufts received a record number of applications for the Class of 2021 and saw a slight increase in the overall acceptance rate for early-decision and regular-decision applicants, according to Dean of Admissions Karen Richardson.
In total, Tufts received 21,101 applications, and the acceptance rate was 14.8 percent, the second-lowest in history behind 14.3 percent for the Class of 2020.
Forty-eight percent of admitted students applied for need-based financial aid, up from 44 percent for Class of 2020 admitted students, according to a 2016 Tufts Now article. Eleven percent are the first in their family to go to college and 55 percent attended a public high school.
Of the students admitted, 50 percent are white, 13 percent are Asian-American, nine percent are Hispanic, five percent are African-American and six percent identify as two or more races. In total, 34 percent of those admitted are domestic students of color. Those numbers are roughly similar to those of the Class of 2020 accepted students.
In addition, students were admitted from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, a number of United States territories and 133 other countries.
In a January Tufts Now article, Richardson attributed the rise in applicants to the Office of Admissions' focus on student outreach.
“The Common Application definitely makes it easier for students to apply to more schools,” Richardson said in the article. “But we’ve also continued to do the outreach that we’ve always done. We continue to have packed campus tours, good turnout for our on-campus open houses and we try to have a finger on the pulse of what prospective students think and how they want information."
Tufts releases admissions decisions for Class of 2021
