AMHERST — Around 5,300 new students are being welcomed to the University of Massachusetts this week, with the freshmen described by UMass officials as one of the most academically strong classes in the past decade.
Assisted move-in for students living on campus began Wednesday and continues through Friday, with students not needing help able to arrive Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Academic classes start Tuesday.
The new class is the most diverse ever entering UMass, with more than four in 10 incoming students identifying as ALANA, which includes African American, Latino/ Hispanic, Asian, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Native American.
The combined grade point average for the class of 2030 is 4.03, continuing a trend started in 2021 of having a grade point average at or above 4.0. The incoming class also posted combined SAT scores of 1386 and ACT scores of 31.3, though those were submitted optionally.
With 52,450 applications for admittance, this also marked the fourth year in a row of hitting the 50,000-ap[plication mark, something Chancellor Javier Reyes referenced at this week’s Community Breakfast in which he discussed the momentum UMass continues to have.
Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, provost and senior vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, said educators look forward to engaging with students on their educational journey.
“The strength of a UMass Amherst education is clearly attracting talented, high-achieving students from across the commonwealth, the nation and the globe,” Abd-El-Khalick said.
The freshmen class ranges in age from 16 to 26 and 44% of its members identify as ALANA, up from 42% last year.
Nearly 70% of the incoming class, or about 3,600 students, are from Massachusetts. The class includes 415 international students from 60 countries, and students come from 42 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
The campus will also welcome 1,110 transfer students, including 335 from MassTransfer, where they have been in community college programs. Their average GPA was 3.49, the highest ever.
“We are particularly encouraged by the continued growth of our incoming transfer population as we work to strengthen pathways to UMass Amherst,” said Matt Boyce, vice provost for enrollment management. “I am confident they will be highly successful students and engaged community members.”
The students in the class of 2030 have 90 majors, with biology and its 425 students the most popular. These majors include the exploratory track and pre-business/pre-engineering majors.
Overall fall undergraduate enrollment at UMass, including transfer students, is expected to be 22,800, with just under three-quarters being Massachusetts residents.
Commonwealth Honors College will welcome 540 first-year students. The incoming class there has a 4.41 high school GPA and combined SAT score of 1447 and an ACT score of 33.4, the highest in the past 10 years.
This fall also marks 20 years of UMass offering an Early Action admission program, with 34,000 applications done in this way. Students apply early for admission and begin receiving notification of their acceptance in mid-December.
