Undergraduate Studies and Experience
Total undergraduate enrollment increased from 3,659 in Fall 2019 to 3,791 in Fall 2020, an increase of 3.6%, and is on track to reach the goal of 4,000 by Fall of 2022. Freshman applications again exceeded 10,000; there were 10,349 in Fall 2020 compared to 10,475 in Fall 2019. Selectivity was 53% for students who were admitted in Fall 2020, compared to 40% in Fall 2019, largely because of the global pandemic. Despite the many challenges that the pandemic created, the incoming class (freshmen, Link, and transfer students) is 985 in Fall 2020 compared to 1,013 in Fall 2019. The middle 50 percent SAT score declined, from 1340-1500 in Fall 2019 to 1320-1480 in Fall 2020 but still exceeds the 2022 target.
The six-year graduation rate for the freshman cohort of 2014 increased to 88% from 85% for the cohort that entered in Fall 2013, the highest in recent history and which meets the target established for Fall 2022. Undergraduates of the Class of 2020 secured an outcomes rate of 95% compared to 96% for the Class of 2019, with record-breaking average starting salaries. The most notable change in the outcomes was an 11% increase in the Class of 2020 graduates choosing to pursue an advanced degree (32%) over the previous year (21%).
Stevens continued to make good progress in balancing undergraduate engineering enrollment with other majors (53% engineering of total undergraduate enrollment and exceeding the target of 60% for Fall 2022) and in increasing the percentage of underrepresented minorities in the undergraduate cohort (15.7% in Fall 2020), also exceeding the target of 15% for Fall 2022. The percentage of women among all undergraduates held steady at 29% in Fall 2020 although the percentage of women in the entering freshman class in Fall 2020 improved to 30.1% compared to the previous year. The percentage of out-of-state undergraduates decreased to 37% in Fall 2020 compared to 38% in the previous year. More progress is needed to increase these percentages and that of international undergraduates to reach the 2022 targets.
Recommendations to effect continuous improvement in student-faculty interactions, including the creation of school/college and department advisory boards that are comprised of students, were developed by an ad hoc committee. Significant efforts were undertaken by the academic units in support of the Spring 2020 semester transition to fully online learning, and the subsequent preparations for the Fall 2020 semester of remote and hybrid instruction.