Welcome Class of 2019!
For Tartans who traveled over the summer, welcome back!
In case you missed it, the Class of 2019 has been busy building bridges and making connections that will impact them at Carnegie Mellon University and beyond.
Caitlin Lohman, a senior in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, is one of this year's head orientation counselors. She said she understands how important those first weeks can be.
"Orientation helped build the foundation for my Carnegie Mellon experience by showing me the extent of the awesome community I was joining," Lohman said.
On Aug. 23, more than 1,500 first-year students joined CMU's "awesome" community in Pittsburgh. Another 110 members of the class headed to Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar.
CMU President Subra Suresh welcomed the Class of 2019 and their families. He called the group an "extraordinarily gifted group of students."
"We are so lucky to have you as part of the Carnegie Mellon family," he said.
At the Pittsburgh campus, the Class of 2019 comprises students from 40 countries and 42 states, Puerto Rico and Guam. Countries outside the United States with the most representatives in the class include China, South Korea and India. International students embody 20.5 percent of the first-year students.
Among U.S. students, this year marks the largest number of students from California since 2009. In fact, the representation of Californians outnumbers the Pennsylvanians in this year's new class (217 compared to 176).
Pittsburgh's Class of 2019 is one of the most diverse in CMU history, with the largest number of women enrolled since 2009 at 46 percent female as well as the largest number of Hispanic students enrolled in the past six years with 147 new students. At CMU-Q, 60 percent of the class is women, and 20 nationalities are represented.
Other top statistics to note since 2009 include:
- The College of Engineering, which U.S. News & World Report recently ranked fourth in its 2016 Best Graduate Schools Rankings, will have a record 513 first-year engineers.
- The Class of 2019 holds the highest average SAT scores with Verbal at 700, Math at 740 and Writing at 710.
More than 90 of the students are part of the inaugural class of freshman presidential scholarships.
"In four years you get an opportunity to experience the joy of learning and what it means to learn," President Suresh said. "It's not what we teach you in the classroom that's important, it's what you learn about lifelong learning."
Throughout the upcoming week, a series of activities will acquaint the new students with CMU. Among the highlights is Playfair, where students assemble on the Cut for the "largest icebreaker ever."These initial activities will help build bridges for the class members as they forge their own paths and join CMU's network of more than 100,000 worldwide alumni. President Suresh said the students would have the opportunity to change the world, even if they don't know those ways today.
Related:
