College commitment season is upon us, and the number of student applicants to Oberlin College and Conservatory for the class of 2029 reached record highs.
Applications for the College’s class of 2029 totaled 10,427, a 7.5 percent increase from the 9,702 applications received for the class of 2028. The College’s acceptance rate was 34 percent.
The Conservatory, meanwhile, saw a 41.3 percent increase in applicants from last year, with 25 percent of the 1,850 first-year applicants admitted. Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Manuel Carballo attributed the increase in Conservatory applicants to the new Music Theater program in an email to the Review.
Additionally, the class of 2029 saw a larger number of applicants from both the U.S. and abroad. There was a 4.4 percent increase in domestic applicants, with a 12.3 percent increase in applicants from the Midwest. The College also saw a record high number of international student applicants, with a 12.9 percent increase from last year; the Conservatory experienced a 6.6 percent increase. International students make up 9 percent of the admitted class of 2029, which is the same as last year. The Admissions Office believes it is too early to accurately gauge the impact the political landscape has on the class of 2029.
“Students sometimes make decisions about their educational plans years in advance (opting out of a national curriculum over an international one, for instance), so any behavioral changes might take longer to manifest themselves,” Carballo wrote in an email to the Review.
Cuts from President Donald Trump’s administration have not yet affected the financial aid given to new students. Carballo wrote that the office will continue to monitor those changes.
Oberlin has also admitted a larger number of first-generation students: 9 percent of the admitted class of 2029 are first-generation college students, compared to 7 percent of students in the class of 2028.
Racial diversity information on the admitted class of 2029 is not yet available, but test scores and GPAs indicate that the class of 2029 holds consistent with the academic achievements of previous years.
The class of 2029 also marks the first time that the College has admitted students from the Houston chapter of the Posse Foundation. The Posse Foundation seeks to help groups of students from diverse backgrounds become future leaders through programming and financial assistance at the Foundation’s partner schools, according to their website. Early Decision rounds included the selection of eleven students for the Houston Posse and eleven students for the preexisting Chicago chapter. There will also be 19 Questbridge scholars, a scholarship for low-income families, among the students arriving in fall 2025.
After selecting the students to be admitted from such a diverse applicant pool, the Admissions staff look forward to welcoming potential Obies and their families in the coming weeks, according to Carballo.
“Now comes the difficult task of showing these amazing students that Oberlin is an amazing place for their next stop and could be a great fit for so many of them,” Carballo wrote. “We always appreciate the community support and look forward to welcoming many visitors during the month of April as students make their final choice by May 1.”
