Wesleyan Maintains Diversity in Class of 2028

Wesleyan’s holistic approach to admissions continues to support a socioeconomically diverse student body with the Class of 2028.  

Among the 824 first-year students and 48 transfer students who joined the campus community this fall, there are more first-generation and Pell-grant-eligible students compared to last year. A notable 16% are the first in their families to go to college, which is higher than the percentage of children of alumni. 

Of those who self-reported their race or ethnicity, the data is comparable to last year: The percentage of domestic students of color remains at 32% of the class. The number of Black/African American students rose to 12%, and Latino/Hispanic students also increased to 12%. Students self-identifying as multiracial rose to 16%. Native American/Alaskan or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students also increased, to 2%. Asian/Asian American students fell slightly to comprise 22% of the class. 

The Class of 2028 student data closely mirror Wesleyan’s total undergraduate student enrollment, except a greater proportion of first-year students chose not to report their racial or ethnic identity. 

“Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling last June, we were able to enhance student body diversity, socioeconomically in particular,” said Vice President and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Amin Abdul-Malik Gonzalez ‘96. 

“Me, my team, and others across campus committed ourselves to the idea that we weren’t just going to admit a class on paper that was going to be defined by statistics, data points, ZIP codes, and country codes,” Gonzalez said, “but that we were going to continue to try to enrich our community by enrolling a cohort of students that would be compassionate, caring, supportive, and invested in making this place better today and tomorrow than it was yesterday.” 

Adding their individual strengths and differences to our campus community, the Class of 2028 hail from 40 states and 41 countries. They speak, read, and write 52 languages other than English and hold citizenship in 70 countries. Forty-eight are transfer students, six are from community colleges, and three are veterans.  

This robust diversity across dimensions is the result of Wesleyan’s outreach and recruitment efforts, the end of legacy admissions, and our expanded No-Loans policy. The percentage of students on grant aid increased from 41% to 46% this year. 

“Wesleyan remains an institution and community that values diversity in all its manifestations and invites students of color to bring their full authentic selves to both the application process and campus community,” said Gonzalez.  

For the complete Class of 2028 profile, visit the Admission website. 

Note: Wesleyan’s data includes students in every race in which they self-identify, thus the total will exceed 100% as students may appear in multiple categories. This differs from federal reporting, which uses a hierarchy and only reports students in one category.