New Westmont Students Arrive for Orientation
Orientation begins Thursday, Aug. 28, for the 379 first-year students representing the class of 2018, and classes start Monday, Sept. 1. The incoming class, which includes two National Merit Scholars, represents 29 states and eight foreign countries.
The eight international students come from Argentina, Germany, Jordan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom. There are 53 students from the Tri-County area. A third of the incoming class (127) are North American ethnic minorities.
“The entire class of first-year and transfer students is very diverse in general, not just ethnically diverse, but socio-economically diverse,” says Silvio Vazquez, Westmont dean of admission. “This reinforces the hard work of the college overall to make a Westmont education affordable and attainable.”
Westmont offered academic merit scholarships to 284 first-year students ranging from $10,000-$15,000.
The average GPA of incoming first-year students is 3.8 with an average SAT (critical reading and math) score of 1170.
Westmont also welcomes 66 transfer students representing 17 states from California to New Jersey. They have transferred from such schools as Claremont McKenna College, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Seattle Pacific University, Scripps College, Colorado College, Georgia Gwinnett College, Wheaton College (IL), Iona College and several community colleges.
“The transfer students are the strongest academically in recent history and geographically diverse as well,” Vazquez says.
Fifty-seven transfer students earned merit awards ranging from $7,000-$10,500.
This year there are four Monroe Scholars who received full-tuition scholarships: Hugh Grant-Chapman of Goleta; Leandra Marshall of Eureka, Nevada; Samuel Muthiah of Altadena and Hailey Wiper of Eugene, Oregon. The Monroe Scholars have an average honors GPA of 4.54 and an average SAT of 1530 out of 1600.
During Orientation on Thursday, new students will move into residence halls from 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. President Gayle D. Beebe will discuss the founding values of the college at a Welcome Chapel from 2-3 p.m. in Murchison Gym.
The Service of Commitment, a formal ceremony with robed faculty that welcomes students to the Westmont community, takes place Friday, Aug. 29, at 3 p.m. beginning in Murchison Gym.