Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Class of 2025 was Carleton’s first class to be recruited entirely remotely. Despite this, the college had its highest number of applicants ever with 7,915 applications, nearly 1,000 more than the year before. The college admitted a record-low 17.5 percent of applicants, 560 students matriculated. 

The class of 2025 is the largest class since 2016. Admissions officer Alex Cardenas hypothesizes that the large class size is due to both the high number of gap-year students, with 57 incoming first-years having taken one or two gap years, and the notably small size of last year’s class, with only 459 admissions. Cardenas explained that “the class of 2024 was super small in part because many students chose to defer their acceptance or take gap years. Our international applicant pool was also a lot smaller than usual because of the pandemic. This year, hoping to return to pre-pandemic enrollment numbers, our target for admission was 545 students.”

Early Decision applications also increased. Forty percent of the class of 2025 was accepted through Early Decision, up from 32 percent last year. 20 percent of the class are recruited athletes. This application cycle was also the first that was test-optional. 67 percent of the admitted students shared their test scores. The demographic makeup of the class of 2025 resembles that of the past couple of years; 32 percent of the Class of 2025 are BIPOC students and 12 percent are international students, representing 29 countries, and speaking 50 languages. 

Tuition costs increased to $75,600, up 1.48 percent from last year. Fifty-six percent of the class of 2025 are receiving need-based Carleton grants while 44 percent are paying the full comprehensive fee. 

Some other notable facts are that the class of 2025 includes six sets of twins, the most common name is William and 20 percent are either a foreign national or dual citizen.