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Date: 5/17/2022
AMHERST – Hampshire College announced that it has continued to exceed its yearly admissions goal and remains on track to continue to grow enrollment after a financial sustainability plan. Hampshire published its plan after fall 2019 when the incoming class was just 13 students.
As of the May 1 deposit deadline, 255 students committed to attend in fall 2022. Hampshire said it will be the largest incoming class since 2018 and represents the culmination of a number of positive trends to emerge of the past year when inquiries, visits and applications all grew steadily.
“Our outreach efforts were a combination of leveraging institutional data with a strong digital marketing strategy and communications campaign, and good old fashioned direct outreach,” said Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Fumio Sugihara. “However, this works best when you offer something relevant, which Hampshire provides. Our curriculum, which emphasizes urgent challenges in our communities, is radical and our pedagogy that embraces narrative evaluations in lieu of grades and where students self-design their liberal arts trajectory differentiates us in the competitive higher education landscape. The last piece was using social media and events to have current students, faculty, and alumni tell their Hampshire stories. Ultimately, it was a community effort.”
Sugihara said the significant growth is proof that that effort is paying dividends. The incoming students hail from 35 states including perennial top-draw states like Massachusetts, New York, California, Connecticut and Maryland.
They also saw enrollments from more obscure states including Arkansas, Nebraska, Utah and Kansas. 29 percent of the incoming class identifies as BIPOC (Black, Indigineous and people of color) and 9 percent are international students.
“This is yet another exciting milestone for Hampshire,” said President Ed Wingenbach. “As we place urgent and globally relevant questions at the center of our curriculum and challenge students to become agents of momentous change, these number affirm that our bold approach to the liberal arts speaks meaningfully to students and families as they make their college choices.”