The first, unofficial statistic of the fall 2000 enrollment from the Student Life Office and the Registrar's Office show that out of the 700 incoming students, there are 530 males (75.7%) and 170 females (24.3%), not only making it one of the classes with the highest female population in WPI, but also the fourth largest freshmen class since 1975.
The statistics also show that with 47 incoming international freshmen (6.7%), representing 23 countries, the Class of 2004 has a higher proportion of students from overseas than any other year. The most represented foreign nationalities are India (8 students), Hong Kong (6 students), Japan, Korea, Thailand and Turkey (3 students each). WPI's preceding class had 31 international students (4.7%) from 21 countries.
Domestically, New England is still the "dominant" origin of the student body, with 510 incoming students from the region. Middle Atlantic ranks second with 77, while Midwest comes third with 19. There are also 11 students from the West, 10 from the South, 6 from the Southwest and 3 from the Mountain regions.
It is also noted that 66% of the incoming students are from public high schools, and the remaining 34% are from private high schools. Out of the 700 enrolled new students, 69% applied electronically, making WPI one of the universities with the highest number of students admitted online in the nation.
Not surprisingly, the most popular major among the freshmen this year is Computer Science (183 students, 26.1%). Mechanical Engineering comes second with 113 students (16.1%). ECE ranks third place with 92 students (13.1%). Other popular majors are Biology (45 students, 6.4%), Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering (both with 31 students at 4.4%). All these numbers, of course, are temporary. It is clearly known that freshmen have the tendency to change their majors.