Swarthmore accepts 12 percent of applicants

With a 42 percent increase in applications this year, Swarthmore officials predicted it would be harder to get in to the highly selective liberal arts college.

And it was.

The college announced on Tuesday that it has accepted 12 percent or 950 of the 7,817 students who applied; last year, 17 percent of applicants were admitted. In 2013, the college accepted 14 percent of applicants.

The college saw its applicant pool soar this year after dropping one of its required essays and halving the word requirement for the other. It made the change after seeing a sharp decline in applications the previous year.

The college, which expects to draw a freshman class of 418, offered the following characteristics about its accepted class:

* 58 percent come from public high schools, 27 percent from private independent high schools, 7 percent from parochial schools and 8 percent from schools overseas.

* Students come from six continents and 74 nations, all 50 states, as well as Washington D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

* The largest group of accepted students come from California, followed by New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas, Maryland, Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, Florida, and Washington.

* Of international students, the largest group — 18 - are from China.

* About 44 percent of admitted students come from schools that tally class rank, and of those, 33 percent are valedictorians and salutatorians.