Yale College recently welcomed 1,652 new first-year students to New Haven as members of the Class of 2030. Joining them were 28 new transfer students and 35 new adult students matriculating through the Eli Whitney Students Program.
Among the new students are graduates of more than 1,200 U.S. high schools, 20 veterans of the U.S. military, and 35 students who were most recently enrolled at a community college.
The new students, most of whom arrived on campus on Aug. 23, are part of the second class to enroll since Provost Scott Strobel and Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis announced an increase in undergraduate enrollment of approximately 100 additional students per class. Since Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin residential colleges opened in 2017, Yale College enrollment has grown by almost 25% to more than 6,700 undergraduates.
“Our new first-year, transfer, and Eli Whitney students have a remarkable variety of talents, aspirations, and experiences, but they share a common commitment to academic excellence,” said Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan. “These new students are among the most academically prepared young people in the world, and they are well positioned to maximize Yale’s expansive resources.”
Since Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin residential colleges opened in 2017, Yale College enrollment has grown by almost 25% to more than 6,700 undergraduates.
The group of new Yalies includes the highest number of Eli Whitney students to enroll in a single year since the program began in 2008. The Eli Whitney Students Program brings adult learners with an extraordinary range of life experiences into Yale College and fully integrates them into the undergraduate academic environment. Of the 35 new Eli Whitney Students, 19 are U.S. military veterans.
Exceptional talent, myriad backgrounds
The newest Yalies arrived in New Haven from 52 U.S. states and territories and from 67 countries. The state sending the most students is California, followed by New York, Texas, Connecticut, Florida, and Illinois. More than 375 first-year students (23%) are eligible for a federal Pell Grant, and 19% will be part of the first generation in their families to graduate from a four-year college. A complete profile of the class from the office of undergraduate admissions is available here.
More than 125 of the new students are from a small town or rural area of the United States. In 2023 Yale became an inaugural member of the Small-Town and Rural Students (STARS) College Network, a first-of-its-kind consortium of colleges and universities that works to create new pathways to college for students who might not otherwise recognize the full range of educational opportunities available to them.
Maintaining a commitment to affordability
Through the incoming class, Yale again demonstrated its extraordinary commitment to helping students and families afford college, university leaders said. More than 53% of new undergraduates are receiving need-based financial aid from Yale, with an average scholarship of over $78,742 for the 2026-27 academic year — a figure that exceeds the cost of tuition and fees by more than $6,000.
More than a third of new students will attend Yale tuition free.
In January, Yale announced a significant expansion of its financial aid program that eliminates all expected costs for families with typical assets and annual incomes below $100,000 while also ensuring that families with typical assets and annual incomes below $200,000 receive need-based scholarships that meet or exceed the cost of tuition.
Among the incoming first-year students, more than 21% received a scholarship that covers the full cost of all billed expenses — tuition, housing, and the meal plan — plus estimated travel costs, hospitalization insurance coverage, and a $2,000 start-up grant. An additional 14% received need-based scholarships that cover at least the cost of tuition. In all, more than a third of new students will attend Yale tuition free.
Wide-ranging academic interests, exceptional academic strength
As applicants, students in the first-year class were invited to list up to three Yale majors that fit their academic interests. Collectively, they expressed interest in pursuing 83 distinct Yale College majors.
Roughly a quarter (24%) listed an arts and humanities major as their first interest. A similar proportion (27%) chose a social science major. About half the class listed a STEM major, with 20% of all students selecting a major in the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science, and an additional 29% selecting a STEM major within Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Nearly all incoming students listed multiple majors of interest, and 82% selected three majors spanning two or more academic categories (such as philosophy, physics, and political science; or biomedical engineering, anthropology, and neuroscience).
For students whose high schools provided a class rank, 96% graduated in the top 10% of their senior class.
Receiving a warm welcome
On Aug. 24, Yale President Maurie McInnis and Yale College Dean Lewis welcomed new students at the Opening Assembly Ceremony on Cross Campus.
McInnis told new students that their education will be defined by “the freedom of intellectual exploration.” Yale, she said, “is a place where you are free to be uncertain… alongside so many other courageous thinkers who want to step beyond what they already know. Uncertainty isn’t something to fear. Uncertainty is something to welcome.”
In his remarks, Lewis welcomed the new students with an address on character and virtue that encouraged them to intentionally consider the kind of lives they want to live. “Character asks you — even challenges you — to discover your values, articulate them, defend them, even change them in the face of new knowledge, and above all to learn how to live by them.”
Many new students will see their families again this month for the Yale College Family Weekend scheduled for October 9-11.
