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Dartmouth’s efforts to make college more accessible for low- and middle-income families is making a difference.

Of the 1,184 students in the undergraduate Class of 2028, drawn from 1,003 high schools around the world, a record-setting 17% of them are in the first generation in their families to go to college. And the number of Pell Grant recipients increased by 5 percentage points to 19.4%, an all-time high for Dartmouth.

The Class of 2028 also sustains the degree of racial and ethnic diversity that characterized recent entering classes at Dartmouth.

Dartmouth’s 254th incoming undergraduate class was drawn from a record-setting applicant pool of 31,656, up 10% from the previous record set a year ago. The 5.4% acceptance rate also established a new Dartmouth record for selectivity.

The new class hails from 49 U.S. states; Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; and 64 countries. Fifteen percent are from rural communities in the United States—a result of a new recruiting initiative launched by the undergraduate admissions office this past year—and 14.5% are non-U.S. citizens.

The Class of 2028 is the first to enroll at Dartmouth since the income threshold for a “zero parent contribution” increased from $65,000 to $125,000, the highest such threshold in the nation. More than one in five students in the new class, or 22%, qualified for this new policy.

Overall, U.S. citizens and permanent residents from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds increased from 26.5% to 28.2% of the entering class, as the percentage who identify as Hispanic or Latinx rose to 12.7% from 9.7% a year ago, and the percentage who identify as Black or African American is 10.2%, compared to 10.9% a year ago. Those who identify as Native American or Indigenous represent 5.3% of the class. 

“That is an exciting illustration of socioeconomic inclusion at the College,” says , vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid. 

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Note: Values do not total 100% as some students report more than one race or ethnicity. Underrepresented Backgrounds include Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, and Native or Indigenous students.  

The percentage of students identifying as Asian American experienced a slight decline, from 23.3% to 21.8%.

More than half of the first-year class—50.8%—has received scholarship aid. 

The average award is $71,582, an increase of $3,700 over last year.

“The Class of 2028 is the most socioeconomically diverse class in Dartmouth’s history,” Coffin says.

A record 19.4% of the class—nearly one in five—qualify for a Pell Grant, federal grants awarded to students from low-income backgrounds, up from 14% a year ago.

The Class of 2028 is the first to be admitted since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in June 2023 to significantly limit how colleges and universities may consider race in their admissions policies. At the same time, writing for the court’s majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “...nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise,” including in their application essays.

“In our selection of the Class of 2028, we were careful to comply with the limitations the Supreme Court imposed,” Coffin says. Indeed, the admissions office “masked” applicants’ responses to questions about their racial identity on the Common App—the universal admissions form used by Dartmouth and more than 1,000 other institutions—and did not “unmask” or reveal that information until after the membership of the Class of 2028 was finalized in mid-June.

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An aerial view of the Class of 2028. (Photo by Chris Johnson)

“We took to heart the court’s acknowledgement of holistic admissions review, which Dartmouth has practiced for over a century,” Coffin says. “We continued to consider applicants’ academic achievements as well as their academic passions and curiosity. And we continued to value applicants’ accomplishments and the ‘lived experiences’—inside as well as outside the classroom—that shaped their narrative and identity.”

In remarks welcoming the class to Dartmouth on Sept. 4, Coffin brought those narratives to vivid life.

“Your multidimensional backgrounds and perspectives will animate your undergraduate experience in mysterious ways,” he told the new class, before adding: “That’s the magic of college. That’s the magic of this college and this class.”