The Most Competitive Freshman Class in LSU History
The LSU freshmen who started school Monday, Aug. 21, make up the “most competitive” class in school history, according to university President William Tate.
Impressive Academic Achievements
Their average high school GPA was 3.82, Tate said. And the Class of 2027 had an average ACT score of 26.5, compared to 26.1 from last year’s class.
The national average ACT score for the high school class of 2022 was 19.8, according to the company that administers the test; Louisiana’s average score was 18.1.
Excitement and High Expectations
“I think we have a highly competitive class,” Tate said. “They are distinguished in a number of metrics that most people can agree are important, and we’re excited about this group. I think they’re going to do extremely well at LSU.”
Increased Number of Valedictorians and Honors College Admissions
According to Tate, this year’s class includes 440 students who were valedictorians at their respective schools, up slightly from the 429 valedictorians admitted last year.
About 1,047 freshman were admitted into the Ogden Honors College, Tate said, well above the 858 admitted last fall.
Rising Status and Strength of LSU
Camille Cobb, a freshman LSU student from the Washington, D.C., area said she came to LSU specifically for the competitiveness of its academic programs.
“They have a competitive architecture program, and so I get to actually test my architecture skills against other students, which is cool,” she said.
Cobb said LSU’s rising status as a university factored into her decision to make the move to Baton Rouge.
Attracting Talent from Outside Louisiana
According to Tate, about 35% of the incoming freshman class came from outside of Louisiana. He stressed that bringing in talent from other states is a major goal for LSU.
“If you look at the demographics of the state, where we’re losing or maintaining our population, it’s very promising that LSU can be a beacon to draw students from out of state to come and experience Louisiana,” Tate said. “I think that’s an extremely important point: We are a net in-migrater of talent to the state.”
A Unique Experience at LSU
Dante Devore, a freshman LSU student from New Jersey studying in arts and humanities, said he chose LSU out of several other schools in the South to get an experience separate from the environment he grew up in.
“I applied to a bunch of schools out of state, visited all of them and this is my favorite one that I visited,” he said. “It was just the atmosphere, the people that I saw and the trees and stuff are pretty cool, so that’s why I came here.”
Continuing Academic Progress
With a freshman class with so many valedictorians, out-of-state students and honors college undergraduates, Tate said he feels LSU is continuing to move in the right direction academically.
“We’re looking for students who have had a demanding high school curriculum where they did college prep curriculum and performed well in those core courses that really predict their performance here,” Tate said. “Those students tend to be able to translate that performance from high school into performing at a research university. We feel like we’re drawing more and more students who are capable of performing at a high level.”
