Better freshmen, better university

IU is welcoming a freshman class with the highest test scores and highest high school achievement. This class is resetting records that were just set last year.
The news couldn’t be better for IU.

This year’s freshman class had a combined average SAT score of 1,146, which is 25 points above last year’s record and is actually the highest ever for an IU freshman class.

This comes after an application process that was noticeably more competitive than the year before.

Despite this year’s freshman class being a few hundred students smaller than last year’s, applications were actually up by about 18 percent. Only about 70 percent of the 28,528 students who applied got accepted this year when about 80 percent of students applying were accepted in previous years.

This is great news for the University during times that are a little uncertain for higher education in general.

Plenty of schools have seen the recession gut their funding and, in a particularly disturbing trend, the national average SAT combined reading and math score has declined by seven points since last year.

Seeing freshman class after freshman class with higher and higher achievement proves we are on the right path.

There are, however, some important questions worth asking about this incoming class.
More than 30 percent of them were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, but as IU becomes more selective – and this year slightly more expensive – does it risk giving up its role as a public university for the state?

Fortunately, the increase in talent hasn’t come at the expense of Indiana residents.
The percentage of out-of-state students was up only slightly, resting at 41 percent. And having a sizeable out-of-state student body is by no means a bad thing.
The investment in human capital taking place here in Bloomington surely benefits the whole state.

So we have a new freshman class that has raised the bar. You couldn’t ask for much more, except maybe enough dorm rooms to keep some from being stuck in lounges.