It’s a new year at Marquette and the class of 2020 is ready to begin new lives and academic careers.

But what are the office of admissions’ opinions on this new class of freshmen? The office shared some statistics about the class of 2020, and details regarding the admission decision process.

According to vice provost for enrollment management John Baworowsky, the admissions office received a total of 14,256 applications for the class of 2020 and admitted 11,082 students for an admission rate of about 77 percent. The class of 2019 received 23,323 applications and admitted 15,205 students, an admission rate of about 65 percent.

The amount of applications this year was about 39 percent less.

“A year ago Marquette made the decision to attract students to apply using a different approach,” Baworowsky said. “We wanted to reduce the number of applications from students only marginally interested and get those students who are very interested in Marquette to apply.”

The university saw 2,027 students enroll this year, an increase from the 1,891 that joined last year’s class of freshmen.

“We are very pleased with the quality of this fall’s class,” Baworowsky said.

According to collegedata.com, a site that releases demographic reports on colleges, the average ACT score for enrolled students was 27. The average SAT math score was 603, critical reading was 590 and writing was 574. Sixty-seven percent of admitted students were reported to have been in the top quarter of their class.

But numbers and grades are not the only things that make an application stand out. According to senior assistant dean of undergraduate admissions Carlos Garces, there are many different materials within the application that affect the decision process.

“We do a holistic application review, which means that we look at everything available to us when we make an admission decision,” Garces said. “The most important factor is the academic preparation, which we assess based on the grades, rigor of coursework, trends in grades and test scores.”

Garces also mentioned the salience of the essay portion of the application. “In addition to the academic review, we get to know the applicants through their essay and activities,” he stated.

Garces continued with the importance of each applicant’s involvement in the community. “As a mission-driven institution, we look for students who would be a good fit for our institutional culture,” Garces said. “We look for students who have been involved in a significant amount of community service or have demonstrated leadership in their activities during high school.”

Overall, the application process at Marquette ensures each student brings their unique ideas, stories and expertise to the University.

“Every student is admitted for different reasons, but we see something in each student that makes us believe that this student should be here,” Garces concluded.