OU Freshman Class Makes State History as Academically Highest Ranked at a Public University in Oklahoma

PDF Version of Release I Download Adobe Reader

8-21/08

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 CONTACT: Catherine Bishop, (405) 325-1543

NORMAN – The University of Oklahoma’s new entering freshman class has the highest academic scores of any public university in the state’s history. The average ACT of the incoming class is almost 26. The new incoming class also includes 469 students who had perfect 4.0 grade-point averages in high school, the most in OU history. OU President David Boren made the announcement at the freshman convocation welcoming new students and their parents at the Lloyd Noble Center yesterday afternoon.

Boren told the freshmen, “I am not only proud of your remarkable academic records, I am even more proud of your values and your desire to serve others.”

This year’s freshman class:

     • includes over 300 State Regents Scholars, more than twice the number
       as the school in second place.  State Regents Scholars rank in the top
       one-half of 1 percent in the nation in test scores.

     • is number one in the nation among public universities in the number of
       freshman National Merit Scholars enrolled per capita, including 176 in
       this year’s class.

The freshman class brings the total number of National Merit Scholars enrolled at OU to more than 600.

In the past four years, generous donors to OU have given almost $135 million in scholarship funds, making it possible to give scholarships to 4,600 more students than before the scholarship fund-raising campaign began. It still has another year to go.