Swarthmore College welcomes 456 first-year students and seven transfer students to the campus community this week, as the 2021–22 academic year officially begins. This is the start of the College’s 153rd year of instruction.
 
The first-year class was selected from 13,012 applicants, of whom 8% were offered admission.
 
“The Class of 2025 is characterized by incredible grit and resilience. Having faced tremendous upheaval in their high school careers, these students rose to the occasion. I am honored to have these remarkable young people join our community,” says Jim Bock ’90, vice president and dean of admissions. “Due to the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, our Office of Admissions had to share the Swarthmore experience in an authentic but completely virtual environment, and our team worked incredibly hard to understand each student’s unique challenges. We are incredibly excited to finally meet them in person on campus this fall.”
 
Among the domestic students in the class, 9% identify as African American, 14% as Hispanic/Latinx, 16% as Asian American, and 10% as multiracial, including nine individuals who identify as Native American/Alaskan/Hawaiian or Pacific Islander/multiracial. In addition, 22% are the first generation in their family to attend college, and 19% receive Pell Grants. Thirteen percent of the first-year class are QuestBridge-affiliated students.
 
Members of the incoming class represent 45 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. New York is the most popular location for high schools among the new class, followed by California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Connecticut, Illinois, Virginia, and Washington.  
 
Twenty-eight percent of the Class of 2025 are dual citizens, permanent residents, or non-U.S. citizens, representing Angola, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Hong Kong S.A.R, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Lithuania, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
 
The most popular anticipated majors among Swarthmore’s newest students are engineering, political science, economics, computer science, biology, English literature, psychology, philosophy, mathematics and statistics, and history.