WS Chronicle

Salem College is continuing to attract a racially diverse student body.

The school just welcomed one of its largest incoming first-year classes in history. According to school officials, the class of 2016 includes 203 new and transfer students.

Forty-five percent of the class are people of color. Forty-seven percent are first-generation college students.

The school has also drawn some of the best and brightest students. Sixty-two percent were among the top 20 in their graduating class, while six of the young women were first in their high school graduating class. Sixty percent of the Class of 2016 hail from North Carolina.

This is the second year in a row that Salem has admitted record-setting first-year classes to campus.

“We are so excited to welcome such a large class of accomplished young women to Salem and we can’t wait to see their contributions to our dynamic community,” says Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Katherine Knapp Watts.

These new students began classes on August 29, joining returning students and a student body total of more than 1,100.

Salem, the nation’s oldest continually operating institution for women, proudly bills itself as the most racially diverse local institution of higher learning. In all, 25 percent of students are women of color, while seven percent of students hail from foreign nations.

The school offers 35 undergraduate majors for women and coeducational graduate studies and programs for men and women via its Fleer Center for Adult Education.