Meet the Class of 2030: A New Chapter Begins on the Mountain
Aug 20, 2026
This week, Sewanee welcomes the Class of 2030—474 first-year students selected from 5,631 applications—to the Mountain. They join 26 transfer students, bringing the University’s total number of new students to 500. The incoming class represents 38 states and jurisdictions and 11 countries—and, perhaps most notably, a growing number of students who knew early that Sewanee was where they wanted to be.
Nearly 40% of the class applied through Early Decision, while another 47% applied through Early Action. Altogether, 84% of the incoming class applied through one of Sewanee’s early admission programs.
“The strength and depth of our applicant pool this year allowed us to be especially thoughtful in shaping this class,” says Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Alan Ramirez. “What has impressed me most is how many of these students knew early that Sewanee was where they wanted to be. They are excited to be here and to be part of this community, and I am excited to see what they will bring to it.”
The Class of 2030 arrives with a strong academic profile, including an average high school GPA of 3.84 on a 4.0 scale. Just over half of the class—52.3%—submitted standardized test scores, with middle 50% ranges of 1260–1390 on the SAT and 28–33 on the ACT composite.
The class also brings a wide range of academic interests. The most popular areas of interest among incoming students are economics and business; biology and pre-med; politics and pre-law; English and creative writing; and psychology and social science.
Those interests reflect only part of what these students will bring to the Mountain. The Class of 2030 includes valedictorians and team captains, Eagle Scouts and Gold Award Girl Scouts, scuba divemasters, small-business founders, and ultra-marathoners.
Thirty-eight percent of the class are student-athletes, and 81% visited Sewanee before enrolling. Students are arriving from communities large and small, with Charlotte, New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville, and Houston representing the top five hometowns for members of the incoming class. Eighty percent of students come from outside Tennessee, with North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina among the other states most represented.
The class also includes students with a range of backgrounds and connections to Sewanee. Twenty-one percent are legacies, with at least one family member who attended the University, while 14% are first-generation college students. Eighteen percent are students of color, up three percentage points from last year, and 18% are eligible for Pell Grants, two percentage points higher than last year’s incoming class. Eighteen percent of the class are Episcopalian.
For the Class of 2030, the transition to Sewanee also marks an important milestone in the University’s First Year Experience (FYE). For the first time, every incoming first-year student will participate in all three components of FYE: Explore, Encounter, and Embark. A key component of Sewanee’s strategic plan, FYE is designed to give students a multidimensional jumpstart to college life, helping them build relationships, explore the 13,000-acre Domain and the University’s many opportunities, engage in interdisciplinary learning, and begin thinking about the kind of Sewanee experience they want to create.
“This class is already showing us the breadth of talent, curiosity, and character that makes a Sewanee education so distinctive,” Ramirez says. “We can’t wait to see what they do here.”
