While some women’s colleges have transitioned to co-educational status in recent years and others have seen a drop in enrollments, Smith College, the highly rated liberal arts college for women in Northampton, Massachusetts, reports that for the 10th consecutive year it has received a record number of applicants.
The college received 5,432 applications for places in the class that will enter the college this coming fall. This is an increase of 3 percent from a year ago. Since 2013, the number of applicants is up 21 percent.
Partly driving the increase has been a surge in foreign applicants. The college received 1,408 applications from foreign students in this admissions cycle, up 5 percent from a year ago. The college received applications from all 50 states.
Smith reports that 2,067 of its 5,432 applicants are women of color. This includes a record 683 African American applicants.
Audrey Smith, vice president for enrollment at Smith College, stated that “social media has changed admission recruitment. Prospective students learn about college online — from engaged students who talk about their experience in the classroom, their individual work with faculty and their social lives on campus. It’s a great time to be at Smith! And prospective students want to be part of the experience.”