Power In Numbers A “Deeper Application” Pool Substantially Propels the Number of Girls Ahead of Boys in Class of 2010
By Antonia McKee ‘10
News Reporter
On September 8th, Choate began its 117th year with a decidedly unusual freshman class. The Choate Class of 2010 matriculated a record ratio of 101 girls to only 70 boys. The difference can be seen in both boarding and day student populations, but is far more pronounced among the day students, among whom girls outnumber boys by more than two to one.
Incoming freshman boarders number 56 girls to 48 boys, while day students number 45 girls to only 22 boys. This year’s influx of female freshmen forced the school to house them in three dormitories instead of the usual two. Six third form girls are housed in Pitman, while the rest live in Nichols and Squire Stanley.
The Class of 2010 underwent the most selective admissions process in Choate history. The matriculation of more female than male students reflects a nationwide trend that extends from the college level down.
“The pool of girl applicants was deeper than that for boys,” explained Mr. John Ford, Dean of Students. “Admissions officers chose therefore to accept more girls, which makes plenty of sense.”
Choate, like most institutions, is attempting to put into place an admissions strategy that will reverse this gender gap.
“The overall numbers for the school population will, however, have to be brought back closer to 50-50, because that’s what a true coeducational school is. That is a tall order for the Admissions Office but they have their strategies in place for this year’s cycle, and I am confident that we will be back in close-to-perfect balance within a couple years,” said Ford.
Though the new students at Choate come from fifteen countries and 27 states, many people on campus would guess that a larger percentage of the new student population comes from the southern Connecticut area than in past years.
Of the entire student population, 387 come from Connecticut, 246 of whom are day students, and 297 of whom live in New Haven and Fairfield Counties. The number of Connecticut students has actually decreased by twelve from last year.
According to Mr. Diffley, other big numbers include 32 new students from New York, twelve from Massachusetts, eight from Illinois, six each from California and Pennsylvania, and many students from other states, including one from Alaska. Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and China are all well represented, by five or six incoming students each.
According to Director of Admissions Mr. Ray Diffley, this year’s new students represent “a bit more geographic diversity than a typical year. We are quite pleased with this mix and will keep traveling the globe to bring those students to Choate. The interest in Choate from within Connecticut has grown over the last several years in part because of our success in building this kind of [diverse] community.”
29 percent of Choate students are on financial aid this year.
The incoming students are not the only new faces on campus this year. Choate welcomes back alum Dean Jacoby ’88, who returns to campus as the new Director of College Counseling. Another new face in the college office is Jill Atkinson, who comes to Choate from Kenyon College. Choate also welcomes Colin Lord to Admissions and Richard Saltz as the new Chief Financial Officer this year.
New faculty include English teacher Jaclyn Thomas, language teachers Xinyu (Helen) Fu and Lihong (Judy) Zhang, both coming to Choate from China to teach Chinese, French teacher Scott Kelly, Latin and Arabic teacher Jeremy Kurzyniec, math teacher Kimberly Grumwald, and science teachers Tom Larsen and Sarah Perkin. Also joining the team are consulting psychiatrist Dr. Mike Kaplan and Rabbi Suri Krieger.
