This week, Morehouse College welcomed the largest group of new students on record for the first day of fall 2021 semester classes. The group of 973 new traditional and online students represents an increase of 70 percent when compared with fall 2020. The 701 traditional residential students in the new student group is a 23 percent growth from fall 2020 and includes 637 first-time freshmen and 64 transfer students. The group also includes the inaugural class of 272 non-traditional men in Morehouse’s online degree completion program, with an average age of 39. 

“Morehouse continues to find new ways to extend our uniquely transformative experience to more talented students,” said David A. Thomas, Ph.D., Morehouse College president. “This record Fall 2021 class demonstrates our proficiency in elevating our historic mission, while at the same time, adapting to leverage technological advances and changes in the way we engage with each other in order to meet the contemporary needs of our students, including their need to be valued, heard, and celebrated for their brilliance.” 

The spike in first-year enrollment was driven in part by a 17 percent growth in prospective residential student applications from fall 2020 and substantial growth in the yield rate of accepted students who then paid deposits and registered for classes, which rose from 82% in 2020 to 98% this year.  Like previous years, the fall 2021 first-time freshman class of traditional students represents an increasingly selective cadre, with an average grade point average (GPA) of 3.51, compared with average GPAs of 3.33 and 3.28 for the fall 2020 and fall 2019 classes, respectively. Average ACT scores rose as well, from composite averages of 21 for both the fall 2019 and 2020 classes to a composite average of 23 for the fall 2021 class. For comparison, the average ACT score nationally was 20.6 in 2020 and the average score for Black students was 16.7. 

“This past year posed many unprecedented opportunities and challenges in recruiting the best and the brightest students to become the next class of men of Morehouse,” said José Mallabo, vice president for strategic marketing, communications, and admissions. “By integrating marketing with admissions and combining data-driven approaches, innovative technology, and digital tools with traditional approaches to engaging students around the country, we were able to surpass many of our goals for this incoming class in terms of its size, diversity, and academic strength.” 

Applications are now being accepted for spring 2022 cohort of Morehouse online students and for the fall 2022 group of traditional, residential first-time freshmen and transfer students. Submitting SAT and ACT scores is optional for fall 2022 prospective first-time freshmen applicants as it was for fall 2020 and 2021 semesters. For more information about applying to Morehouse, visit https://morehouse.edu/admissions/apply/.