Yale-NUS College issued a press statement today (16 Jun) to welcome its inaugural class of 157 students.
It said that 157 students from 26 countries will form the inaugural class of Yale-NUS College, Singapore’s first liberal arts college. Classes will begin in August 2013.
Yale-NUS said, “The College’s highly selective and competitive admissions process yielded a class of extremely accomplished students with diverse talents and backgrounds.”
In all, Yale-NUS attracted over 11,400 applications from over 130 countries. It did not reveal how many of the applications were from Singapore. Following are some statistics pertaining to the inaugural batch of students:
| Size of inaugural class | 157 |
| Number of nationalities | 26 |
| Number of female students | 87 |
| Number of male students | 70 |
| SAT – Critical Reading (at 75th percentile) | 760 |
| SAT – Math (at 75th percentile) | 780 |
| Median SAT score (on the 1600 scale) | 1440 |
Yale-NUS said it plans to grow its class size to 250 students over the next few years.
Yale-NUS’ Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Kristin Greene, said, “We are delighted that so many outstanding students from Singapore and across the world are keen to be part of this historic opportunity. Students with opportunities at Ivy League schools and leading universities throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Singapore chose Yale-NUS College. Most importantly, they’ve chosen to blaze their own trail and be part of shaping a setting of academic excellence and innovative community for generations of students to come.”
However, the press statement also revealed that only 97 out of the first batch of 157 students are Singaporeans (62%). The rest of the 60 (38%) students are foreigners. The percentage of foreign students at 38% is unusually high for a public funded university.
The breakdown of the foreign students:
- Asia, Australia, NZ – 32
- US – 13
- EU, Africa, South America – 11
- Canada – 4
Yale-NUS’ Founding President Pericles Lewis said, “We are writing a new chapter in the history of liberal arts and science education for an increasingly complex and interconnected world. Our inaugural class will experience a distinctive, international education in a community of learning that provides a microcosm of our globally networked society.”
Of course, all these programmes are carried out with funds from the pocket of Singapore taxpayers.
Editor’s note: A letter has been sent to Yale-NUS asking why it did not recruit more Singaporean students.
TR Emeritus
*Article first appeared on www.TREmeritus.com