campus news & events

Colby-Sawyer College Welcomes Largest Class in its History

NEW LONDON, N.H., Sept. 25, 2007 - Colby-Sawyer College welcomed 381 new students to campus this fall, the largest incoming class in recorded history. The students come from 18 states and five countries, with 35 percent from New Hampshire and 91 percent from New England.

“You are a special group of people with a diverse set of experiences,” Vice President of Enrollment Management Greg Matthews told the students at Convocation, the official opening of the academic year, on Sept. 7. “One of you has come from 7,700 miles away in Nepal and one lives within four miles of here. Several of you have served in the armed forces, and we thank you.”

Matthews joked that most of the students already know this information because they have met each other through Facebook, a popular social networking web site. “But isn't it great to finally meet the old-fashioned way?” he asked the students.

The students are academically strong, with their top five intended majors in nursing, business administration, exercise and sport sciences, child development, psychology and history. Following national trends in higher education, 70 percent of the new class members are women. The students are actively engaged in athletics and recreation, as well as extensive travel and community service.

One new student operates a successful graphic design and printing business, another is a trapeze artist, and yet another is a member of the Junior National Fencing Team. Others are political activists, hunters, honors students and mountaineers and former military service men and women or members of the National Guard. Twenty-five new students have come to the college as transfer students, mainly from community and technical colleges in the New England Region.

This record-breaking fall enrollment follows a year in which the Colby-Sawyer community has worked hard to personalize the recruitment process for each prospective student and emphasized the college's people, programs and place, according to Tracey Perkins, director of admissions. In a campus-wide communications effort, faculty and staff, including coaches, as well as current students, have become even more involved in welcoming prospective students to campus and responding to their individual interests in academic, athletics and other co-curricular programs.

The community has tried to convey the distinct characteristics of a Colby-Sawyer education: small and challenging classes, accessible professors, staff, coaches and administrators, and an engaged and active community in which individuals matter and can make a big impact, according to Perkins.

“Our goal was to reach out to prospective students and their families at all the vital points in the application process and to really get to know the incoming students,” Perkins said. “Not only does Colby-Sawyer know the Class of 2011 better than any group before them, the students really understand the college and have arrived with an unprecedented sense of community.”

Colby-Sawyer, founded in 1837, is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in the scenic Lake Sunapee Region of central New Hampshire. Students from 25 states and five foreign countries learn in small classes through a select array of programs that integrate the liberal arts and sciences with pre-professional experience. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.colby-sawyer.edu.

Colby-Sawyer College, 541 Main Street, New London, N.H. 03257 (603) 526-3000 (telephone)