Claremont, Calif. (September 19, 2011) — Fifty-five percent of the Pitzer College entering class graduated from high school in the top ten percent of their high school class with forty-one percent graduated with a 4.0 GPA or higher. The class consists of 272 students from 237 different high schools.
Seven percent of the class is the first in their family to attend college.
Pitzer College has successfully reduced the average amount of indebtedness of its students. Over the past six years, the average cumulative debt after four years of study decreased from nearly $22,000 to $14,600.
Fifty-eight percent of the entering class is from outside California. The major geographic areas represented are Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Washington. This is also one of the classes with the most international exposure of any in Pitzer’s history. In addition to numerous incoming international students, there are also many Americans students who have spent at least a year of their high school careers living abroad in countries such as Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Thailand and United Arab Emirates.
Collectively, the Class of 2015 has volunteered almost 75,000 hours in community service globally. Students have built bathrooms with running water for schools in Africa during the summer; created a peace studies documentary on food ethics; founded of schools for Kabul; worked with Seeds of Peace – promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians; displayed artwork at the Guild Hall Museum in New York; engaged in an extensive research project on the history of the NRA and America’s obsession with firearms; awarded Royal Thai Scholarship – highest honor of any student in Thailand; won Miss Teen Taiwan.
