Although the group is the newest on campus, IU's class of 2021 has already beat records from every class before it.
The freshman class of 7,995 students is not only the largest incoming class in IU's history but also has a higher average GPA, better composite standardized test scores and more diversity in comparison to prior classes, according to an IU Newsroom press release.
Executive Director Sacha Thieme said the Office of Admissions has found these students by making the application process easier, providing tours for visiting students and traveling globally and nationally to recruit. The Office of Admissions does not have any big plans for changing its recruitment process this year after the success of the class of 2021.
“We’ll continue to apply many of the recruitment techniques we have been using,” Thieme said. “This freshman class is a wildly talented group of students.”
Thieme said with fewer students who qualify for high school graduation, IU is visiting more places and looking nationally and globally to recruit.
“It’s not getting easier to recruit students,” Thieme said.
Besides looking in a larger geographic area, the office is expanding in areas such as communication about the University, passing information to high school guidance counselors and working with the community.
“We are expanding our recruitment from every section,” Thieme said.
While IU is still utilizing traditional recruitment techniques such as visiting high schools and college fairs, it has also added the ability for students to apply to IU and other universities at the same time with the Common Application or the Coalition Application.
“We really are working to be where the students are,” Thieme said. “We don’t want students to have to jump out of the space they’re in to find us.”
This past year, with a variety of options, there has been a 21 percent increase in applicants, leading to over 42,000 applications.
A variety of factors played a role as to why the class of 2021 chose IU.
With both of her uncles attending IU for a short time, freshman Grace Todd, an exploratory major, said she wanted to be the first in her family to make it through IU. She also said the distance from home played a role in her decision,
“It’s close enough to home where I can be close to my family, but far enough away that I can be away from it all,” Todd said.
Gyan Partlow, a freshman marketing major, said the quality of education and his participation in the Groups Scholars Program, which helps minorities and first-generation college students, played a large role in his decision.
“It was a matter of I knew that I wanted to major in business, and Kelley is the best in the nation,” Partlow said.
In the press release, David B. Johnson, vice provost for enrollment management, said admissions is excited about the strong statistics for the class of 2021.
“The numbers reflect the tremendous strength of the campus’s academic offerings, the appeal of its vibrant campus life and the success of Indiana University’s efforts to keep college affordable and accessible,” Johnson said.
