College Publishes Admissions Statistics for Class of 2029

The college accepted 1,175 applicants on March 21 as part of the Amherst class of 2029, according to Dean of Admissions Dale Hendricks. As per tradition, regular decisions were sent out last Friday at 6:21 p.m. — 18:21 in military time, a nod to the year of the college’s founding.

The college received a record-high 15,818 applications this year, an acceptance rate of around 7%. Total applicants increased by 2,118 from last year’s 13,700. Twenty-five percent of the admitted students identify as the first in their family to attend a four-year college, another record high for the school. The class includes students from all 50 states, as well as Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam.

The class of 2029 is the second class to be evaluated in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling banning the use of race-based affirmative action. While a large drop in the percentage of Black students in this year’s freshman class caused disappointment on campus, final statistics for the next year’s enrolling students, including racial data, will not be available until early fall when enrollment is finalized.

However, the demographic results of last year’s class did lead the school to further its commitment to digital and in-person recruiting. This was the first year of the college’s participation in the Small Town and Rural Students (STARS) College Network, a coalition of colleges and universities aimed at recruiting students from rural areas. 96 admitted students in the Class of 2029 have home addresses in rural regions, a 37% increase from a year ago.

All admitted students are invited to campus for either of two Be A Mammoth days, which take place on April 7 and April 15 to 16.

Admitted students will have until May 1 to respond to their offers of admission.