After working seven days a week for nearly two months to review applicants' materials, decide whom to accept, and prepare acceptance packets, admissions staffers sent priority mail envelopes in late March to 1,259 successful applicants to the class of 2000.

Class of 2000 a Strong Group March 27 was "D-Day" at the admissions office... "Decision Day," that is. Letters were mailed that day telling all 2,022 applicants to the class of 2000 whether the College accepted them. Director of admissions Anita Smith called the 1,259 accepted applicants "a strong crop" of prospective students. Compared with the students accepted last year, this year's applicants had slightly higher SAT scores (verbal scores rose two points to an average of 648, math scores rose five points to 619), included more students of color (applications were up 8 percent and rose above 500 for the first time), and more international students (nearly 4 percent more applied). Applications were received from women in forty-seven states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and sixty-five other countries. Sixty percent of accepted students were in the top 10 percent of their high school class. The College received seven fewer applications this year than in 1995, but according to Smith, applications have risen between 14 and 15 percent since 1991. Smith believes the slight decrease in applications to MHC this year is similar to those experienced by our main competitors. She noted that our applicants "expressed sincere interest in Mount Holyoke, were more aware of us than were previous classes, and were more in touch with the reasons to consider a women's college." These factors should make students more likely to enroll here. Membership in the class may change as students on the "wait list" fill any slots made available by applicants who enroll elsewhere. "The class of 2000 isn't truly here until they walk through the door in September," Smith says.-- E.H.W.