The University of Western Ontario is bracing for its biggest first-year class ever, as approximately 5,100 students plan to arrive on campus in September.
The number of confirmed acceptances came as a bit of a surprise, as the university projected its first-year enrolment to be 4,800 in 2011-12, an increase from the past target of 4,350 students. This also exceeds Western’s plan of increasing its first-year intake to 4,900 by 2013-14.
“Clearly, the acceptance rate exceeded our projections, even despite having made 600 fewer offers than we did last year,” says Janice Deakin, provost and vice-president academic. “In fact, we also raised our entering grade cut-off from 81 per cent to 82 per cent.
“This is a good news story because it demonstrates there’s high demand for a Western degree from high-caliber students, all of which speaks to our university’s strong reputation.” Western is also on target to meet its first-year international student enrolment plans of 250 students in 2011-12, an increase from 146 students in 2010-11.
In order to fulfill its first-year residence guarantee, Western will be reducing the number of residence spaces for upper year students and will use London Hall – traditionally dedicated to upper year students – as a first-year residence.