March 2019

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Mar. 13, 2019 - Santa Clara University received a record 16,295 applications for the Class of 2023, the second year in a row that SCU received more than 16,000 applications.

Students who applied through the Regular Decision option received their notification on March 12. SCU also offered an Early Decision II application plan for the first time; those applicants received decisions in February. Santa Clara will enroll its largest class to date of 1,420 first-year students this fall.

This year, Santa Clara’s acceptance rate decreased to 47 percent. Other notable characteristics of the admitted class include:

• An average unweighted GPA of 3.82
• SAT average composite score of 1420
• ACT average composite of 32
• 46.3 percent are students of color
• 25 percent are from Catholic high schools
• 50.7 percent are from public schools.  
• Admitted students represent 46 states, AP, AE, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, Mariana Island, Virgin Islands, and 59 countries.

“The last decade has been transformative at Santa Clara,” said Eva Blanco Masias, Santa Clara University’s dean of admission. “From new residential and dining facilities, to state of the art academic buildings, from students who are national scholarship winners, to faculty who are leaders in their field, there is much to be proud of here at Santa Clara, and we are looking forward to sharing all these great opportunities with the Class of 2023,” said Masias.

Admitted students have many opportunities to get to know Santa Clara better before they make their final enrollment decision by May 1. SCU welcomes admitted students to Preview Day, the annual spring visit celebration and program, on April 13 and 14. Preceding that, on April 11 and 12, SCU hosts its diversity overnight program, Unity Night. The keynote address at the Unity Luncheon will be given by Ronnie Lott, NFL Hall of Famer, philanthropist, SCU Trustee, and proud father of two SCU Broncos. Admitted students can also participate in ShadowSCU, designed specifically for students to experience daily life as a Bronco through a class visit and an overnight stay in a residence hall.

Santa Clara University also travels across the country in the spring to meet with admitted students and families at regional receptions held in eleven cities: Boston, Chicago, Denver, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, and the Tri-State Area.

The Class of 2023 will be arriving at an exciting time on the Mission Campus:

• Santa Clara recently announced the launch of a $1 billion fundraising campaign that will enable students to learn more collaboratively, study more globally, and work alongside a more diverse, accomplished, and justice-oriented student body and faculty.
• Santa Clara was named the No. 1 regional university in the western region in the 2019 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings. SCU earned a perfect overall score of 100 out of 100, with excellent marks in graduation rate, undergraduate focus, attracting top students, value, class sizes, peer assessment, and innovation.
• The innovative REAL Program (Real Experience, Actual Learning), introduced last year, has supported meaningful paid summer internships, research, and creative projects for more than 120 students across 18 majors in the College of Arts & Sciences so far.
• The Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation, which will open fall 2021, will be the new collaborative hub for tech and humanities.
• In 2018, eight Santa Clara students or recent alumni were selected as Fulbright Scholars.

Admitted students have until May 1 to accept Santa Clara’s admission offer.

About Santa Clara University

Founded in 1851, Santa Clara University sits in the heart of Silicon Valley—the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial region. The University’s stunningly landscaped 106-acre campus is home to the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asís. Ranked the No. 1 regional university in the West by U.S. News & World Report, SCU has among the best four-year graduation rates in the nation and is rated by PayScale in the top 1 percent of universities with the highest-paid graduates. SCU has produced elite levels of Fulbright Scholars as well as four Rhodes Scholars. With undergraduate programs in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, and graduate programs in six disciplines, the curriculum blends high-tech innovation with social consciousness grounded in the tradition of Jesuit, Catholic education. For more information see www.scu.edu.