The University of Georgia reports that its entering class is the most academically qualified in history and is the most diverse in university history. There are more than 5,400 students in the entering class. They have an average grade point average of 3.98 on a 5.0 scale. The average score on the SAT college entrance examination was 1302, the highest in university history. The university accepted just over half of all applicants this year, down from 63 percent of all applicants in 2011.
Some 1,730 students self-identify as students of color. More than 460 students self-identify as African Americans. This is an increase of 10 percent since 2015. Blacks are about 8.5 percent of entering class.
While the University of Georgia has been making significant progress in increasing the diversity of its student body, it must be noted that the U.S. Census reports that Blacks make up 31.7 percent of the Georgia population. Thus, the percentage of Blacks in the entering class is only slightly more than one quarter of the percentage that would be required for racial parity to prevail with the state’s population.
