December 2019

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 13, 2019 - Prospective Class of 2024 students showed Santa Clara University a record-breaking amount of love this fall by sending 8,280 early applications—the first time the university has broken the 8,000 mark. Most notably, Early Decision I applicants, those students who are committing to a binding admission process, were up 28 percent.

Students who applied through both Early Action and Early Decision I admission tracks received their notifications through their online application portals on December 11.

Santa Clara’s acceptance rate for these early applications was 55.5 percent overall. Another 27 percent of students were deferred. Other notable characteristics of the admitted class include:

• Average unweighted GPA: 3.82

• Average SAT score: 1415

• Average ACT score: 32

• 48.5 percent are students of color


"We are pleased to offer admission to the many accomplished students who applied to Santa Clara early," said Eva Blanco Masias, Santa Clara University's dean of admissions.

Santa Clara expects about another 9,000 applications to come in for the final two admission tracks, Early Decision II and Regular Decision, due January 7. It is the second year that Santa Clara will offer Early Decision II, a second binding admission plan to give students time after November 1 to decide if SCU is their number-one choice. This is an option for any new applicants as well as those who were deferred in the Early Action round.

"Students beginning their college journey at Santa Clara in 2020 will be witness to new facilities and a growth of the student body: from the construction of the new campus for engineering and sciences to the new center for athletic excellence, our Mission Campus will allow incoming students to stretch their intellectual abilities and enliven their imaginations in the heart of Silicon Valley, " said Blanco Masias.

The Class of 2024 will be arriving at an exciting time on the Mission Campus:

• Kevin O’Brien, S.J., took the helm July 1 as Santa Clara University’s 29th president. His key priorities for his first year in office include accessibility, transparency, fundraising, and outreach in Silicon Valley. 

• In its first-ever showing in U.S. News & World Report’s National Universities category, SCU ranked No. 54 among nearly 400 national-level universities in the publication’s 2020 “Best Colleges” edition. 

• The Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation, scheduled to open fall 2021, will be the new home for the Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics. Built to foster convergence across traditional disciplines, and inspired by our Jesuit ideals and Silicon Valley’s culture of collaboration and innovation, the campus will allow students to forge breakthroughs and help build a more humane, just, and sustainable world.

• The 50,000-square-foot Athletic Excellence Center, expected to open summer 2020, will help the next generation of Olympians, All-Americans, World Champions and Hall of Fame athletes from SCU. 

• Finn Residence Hall, which opened in the fall, constructs its communal life around the theme of well-being in the physical, emotional, and spiritual sense. 

• Students admitted through Early Action have until May 1 to accept Santa Clara’s admission offer, while students admitted through Early Decision I must deposit by January 7. 

About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its more than 9,000 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, theology, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees and engineering doctoral degrees. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see scu.edu.

Media Contact
Deepa Arora | SCU Communications | darora@scu.edu | (408) 554-5125