The class of 2030, by the numbers
Over the last three weeks, the News’ Data Desk surveyed the class of 2030 to gauge their current views, experiences and expectations at Yale. The questionnaire was sent to 1,634 first years and received 517 total responses, representing about 31.6 percent of the class. The number of responses varies by question.
Scroll to read about first years’ high school extracurriculars, political views and more.
Background and identity
The majority of respondents are starting Yale at 18 years old — 80.4 percent — although 1 percent are beginning at 20 or older. Four percent took a gap year, and the most popular reason for doing so, at 33 percent, was to complete an internship or pursue specific interests.
The most popular state of residence is New York at 12.1 percent, followed by California at 10.3 percent and Texas at 8.2 percent. Among international students, the United Kingdom and Singapore are the most common countries of origin, at 1.4 percent and 1.2 percent of all responses, respectively. Overall, only 13.2 percent of respondents are from rural areas.
Twenty-nine percent of respondents identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, queer or questioning, with the largest percentage identifying bisexual, at 11.7 percent overall. Additionally, 1 percent identify as non-binary, 1.8 percent as genderqueer and 2.8 percent as transgender.
Most students — 56.8 percent — are not very religious or spiritual, and 19.5 percent identify as agnostic. The majority of students — 52 percent — speak more than one language.
Just over half of respondents — 54.1 percent — receive financial aid, and 10 percent overall expect to take out loans. Of those receiving aid, the greatest number of students receive full aid, at 20.9 percent of respondents, followed by 76 percent to 99 percent covered, at 15.2 percent of respondents. Most respondents — 94 percent — receive at least partial financial support from their parents, but 4.1 percent will be paying their way through Yale alone.
There are just about as many legacy students as there are first-generation students. Just under 5 percent of respondents have a relative currently attending Yale, and 17.1 percent have a relative that attended Yale in the past, with the most popular relative being a parent at 56.7 percent.
Of legacy respondents, 100 percent of those with relatives in Benjamin Franklin, Timothy Dwight and Pauli Murray colleges chose not to be placed into their relative’s college, while 100 percent of those with relatives in Branford and Pierson colleges chose to be placed into their relative’s college.
