More than 20 percent arrived with perfect 4.0 GPAs
With the beginning of the fall semester upon us we thought it would be nice to share a little about the BYU freshman class of 2016, some of the brightest students in the world.
For the second year in a row, more than 13,000 students applied to BYU—our highest application numbers in the history of BYU—and the 7,200 students who were admitted make up one of our most accomplished incoming classes to date.
As mind boggling as it may sound, the average ACT score for the entire class was 29.2 (54 had perfect 36 scores!!!) and the average GPA was 3.85. A staggering 22 percent, more than 1/5 of new students, came to BYU with perfect 4.0 GPAs. These are some incredibly intelligent students.
Not impressed yet? How about this: 870 of the new students, or 16 percent, were ranked No. 1 in their graduating class. If you expand that to include those in the top 5 of their class, the number shoots up to 22 percent.
More than 70 percent of students played a high school sport, with nearly 30 percent of them serving as captain, and about 80 percent performed in musical groups, dance troupes, plays or concerts. Our new students are also hard workers: More than 80 percent were employed during high school or the summer.
While these numbers are remarkable, it should be noted that they do not represent the requirments for admission--they are just a few highlights of our entire entering class. BYU considers a variety of factors in a holistic review of each applicant, taking into consideration academic achievement, extracurricular activities, leadership, other talents and much more.
Another impressive class of BYU students. Welcome to BYU!