Class of 2016 brings highest SAT scores in University history

UVM’s Class of 2016 is bigger and better than ever — so says information released by the office of admissions.

This year, incoming first-years make up about 23 percent of undergraduates, with 2,438 enrolled as of Aug. 13, according to information provided by Beth Wiser, director of admission.

“The new students we are welcoming this fall, both first-year and transfer students, represent some of the strongest prepared students graduating from high school or changing universities this past year,” Wiser said.

Out of the 10,170 total undergrads, the Class of 2016 has also scored higher on their SATs than any other class.

As a matter of fact, this year’s total median score of 1783 is the highest average in UVM history, according to an official press release made by the school.

The Vermont students who chose UVM this year are some of the best students in the state, Wiser said.

“In addition to what they bring to the classroom, our new students bring rich and unique experiences and interests that make UVM such a welcoming and interesting community of students,” she said.

“Apparently we’re awesome or something,” stated first-year Lauren Flournoy on the Class of 2016 Facebook page.

“Better not look at my reading and writing scores,” replied first-year Cody Vickroy.

Other students, like sophomore Jessica Hale, said the fact that they have the highest SAT scores in UVM history suggests all students should have high expectations for themselves.

“But not too high because we all know that [most people] come into UVM as an individual and leave as a stoner — I’m an exception,” Hale said.

Some students, however, were not impressed with the title bestowed upon them.

“It made me feel very generic,” said first-year Caroline DeCunzo, referring to the attention given to the SAT scores by President Tom Sullivan at convocation Aug. 26.

“I also didn’t like the idea that we were the most talented class because we had the highest SAT scores, just because I don’t think SAT scores and talent are inherently related — or at all,” she said.

Once again, the majority of new students joined the College of Arts & Sciences, making up 53 percent of the total class, according to documents released by the office of admissions.

This surpassed the numbers of the next-largest school — Engineering & Math Sciences — by over 1,000 students.

Diversity, commonly perceived as a weak point at UVM, has also seen a rise in recent years with over 10 percent of the incoming class identifying as African, Latino, Asian, and Native American, consistent with last year’s previously record-breaking numbers.

“The school seems a lot more diverse than last year,” Hale said. “It just seems like with such a large class you’re going to get lots of different types of people.”