Class of 2020 Surpasses Predecessors

Continuing a trend, Pitt’s freshman class once again has surpassed its predecessors.

“This class is the most academically accomplished and heterogeneous class in Pitt’s history,” Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said in his Oct. 28 report to the Board of Trustees.

The class of 2020 hails from nearly 1,400 different high schools in 44 states and includes 162 international students from 28 different countries. Sixty-one percent of this year’s 4,035 freshmen are from Pennsylvania.

The incoming class’s average standardized test score was the equivalent of an SAT score of 1309 and average GPA was 4.01.

“This class is also our most ethnically diverse in the University’s history, with 1,167 minority students making up nearly 30 percent of the class of 2020,” Gallagher said.

Last year, Pitt received more than 30,000 applications for those 4,000 freshman class slots, and for the second year in a row the University realized an increased yield — the percentage of students who accepted Pitt’s offer of admission.

“That number is an important and strong signal about how we are competing against our peers,” the chancellor said.

Gallagher noted that the University already has received about 10,500 applications to date for 2017, on pace with last year.

This article first appeared in the University Times on November 10, 2016.