Colorado College welcomes 576 incoming members of the Class of 2024 and 36 transfer students.
This year, move-in will take place over an extended five-day period (Aug. 13-17) to allow for social distancing. New Student Orientation programming will begin on Aug. 17, and Colorado College's 147th academic year will kick off with classes starting Monday, Aug. 24.
The incoming first-year class, selected from a record 10,260 applicants, had a 14% admittance rate, with 19% Pell eligible, 13.2% first-generation students, and 23.4% from Colorado. Additionally there are 27 international first-year students, representing 4.7% of the class. For the seventh year in a row, more than a quarter of the incoming class (32.3%) self-identify as students of color.
Additionally, the class includes 43 QuestBridge students; QuestBridge is a non-profit organization that matches high-achieving students from under-resourced high schools with opportunities in higher education. CC is now in the seventh year of its partnership with the organization.
The arts are well-represented among the class members: 29% are musicians (playing the oboe, xylophone, vocals, harp, and more), 22% are performing artists (acting, stage crew, directing, poetry, spoken word, film, dance), and 20% are visual artists (painting, photography, pottery, glass blowing, quilting, stained glass, costuming, architecture, leather working, carpentry, chalk art, and more).
Members of the class are also involved in community and civic service. Among the causes they have worked with are food insecurity, healthcare, religious organizations, elderly rights, tutoring/education, homelessness, Black Lives Matter, trans rights, voting rights, environmental issues, MeToo movement, political campaigning, gun violence, equal pay, and immigration.
Additionally, 48% of the incoming students speak at least one other language in addition to English. Of the 40 different languages spoken, they range from (alphabetically) Akan, Albanian, and Arabic, to Urdu, Vietnamese, and Yoruba.
Members of the Class of 2024, entering college at a unique time, bring with them unique experiences. Among them are students who have:
- Worked as a lobsterwoman
- Been a kindergarten teacher
- Built a boat
- Worked as a haunted house actor
- Been an extra in Game of Thrones
- Discovered a dinosaur bone
- Graduated high school with an associate's degree in software engineering
- Worked as a firefighter
- A family of 10 siblings
- Been a beekeeper
And while students may arrive with different experiences, they will start with CC's Common Read; this year's book is "What the Eyes Don't See" by Mona Hanna-Attisha. The book describes how Hanna-Attisha, an immigrant, doctor, scientist, and mother, alongside a team of researchers, parents, friends, and community leaders, discovered that the children of Flint, Michigan, were being exposed to lead in their tap water - and then battled the government and a brutal backlash to expose that truth to the world.
The purpose of Colorado College's Common Read Program is to create a common intellectual experience for incoming undergraduate students, to introduce them to the college's core values as an academic community, and to teach them how to engage as members of CC's community of scholars.
Welcome to the Class of 2024; we're glad you're here!