UMass Amherst Welcomes Approximately 5,550 First-Year Students To Campus
Photo: umass.edu
The Class Of 2026 Represents One Of The Most Diverse And Accomplished In University’s History
The University of Massachusetts Amherst this week will welcome a diverse and accomplished class of approximately 5,550 first-year students to campus.
First-year students began moving in Thursday, September 1, and all students were encouraged to participate in Welcome to the U events, leadership opportunities and community building programs beginning this week and continuing through September.
The Class of 2026 ranks among the most diverse in the university’s history, with 36% of the class composed of ALANA (African, Latino/Hispanic, Asian, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Native American) students and 16% of the class being under-represented minority students. Female students account for 54% of the class. The campus will also welcome 1,010 new transfer students to the campus community.
The academic profile of the incoming class is outstanding. This group of first-year students has the highest average high school GPA (4.02) and highest average combined SAT score (1358) of any class during the past decade (submission of test scores is optional).
Overall fall undergraduate enrollment, including transfer students, is projected to be approximately 22,900 (an increase of 155 students) with 75 percent of them being Massachusetts residents.
The university received a record 45,405 applications for this year’s entering class. The size of the class, approximately 5,550 students, is the second-largest first-year class in university history. Massachusetts students number 3,635, or 66 percent. There are 1,440 students from out of state and 475 international students.
Commonwealth Honors College will welcome 700 students – the largest group since 2014 – with outstanding high school GPA (4.40), combined SAT scores (1421) and ACT scores (32.4).
This is the 16th year that the university offered an Early Action (EA) admission program whereby students apply early for admission and receive notification of their acceptance by mid-December. The number of students using the EA option has increased annually from about 8,000 applicants in 2009 to 24,000 this year. A little more than half of the students apply through EA, and more than 3,075 students admitted through EA will enroll in the fall.
I am frankly shocked by this datum: “This group of [UMass] first-year students has the highest average high school GPA (4.02) and highest average combined SAT score (1358).” Does this mean that the “average” UMass freshman has a better-than-A average? That those UMass students who submit SAT scores are ranked in the 95th to 99th percentile?
I live in a predominantly student neighborhood in downtown Amherst. I see student renters making terrible decisions every day (drinking, carousing all night, disturbing the peace of full-time residents, making endless gratuitous trips by {often oversized} cars, etc.). Am I to understand that most of these young people are virtual geniuses, their heads already filled with learning and useful information?
Nope. What these statistics mainly suggest is that there is a major problem with grade inflation in high schools and that these stratospheric grades indicate nothing about a person’s common sense, empathy, or general knowledge.
Assuming that the reported data is accurate, the entire UMass community should be excited by the credentials and diversity of this incoming freshman class.
This was one of the most challenging and competitive years in history for college applicants, across the country. In addition to a historically high number of high school graduates, there was a significant contingent of youth that took a “Covid Gap Year” last year. This “perfect storm” created a daunting landscape for this year’s applicants to navigate. I witnessed the situation first hand as my son is a freshman, Class of 2026, at another institution.
These UMass freshman students are quite deserving of their acceptance into a fine institution. Best of luck to the UMass Class of 2026!
So much for the intentions behind funding a land grant institution of higher learning. Just like everything else in our culture it has become about bigger, better, more expensive and with more students from outside the state than in. Meanwhile, the (now) city, formerly known as the Town on Amherst, established in 1703, has been eaten up by the “University”, established in 1947. The surge it began to foil upon Amherst in the 1980s has eaten up the town which happily and successfully existed beforehand. Odd that even our Chief Administrator sees the University as the “lifeblood” of our town. Perhaps that perspective is exactly the problem.