Record number of Broncos flood Santa Clara for record-setting new school year

This year, the Mission campus opened to its largest class ever. There are 1,644 members of the class of 2029. The group comes from 40 states and 32 countries.

They’ll be studying at a campus on the rise. The same week classes started, U.S. News & World Report issued its annual ranking of colleges. Santa Clara, which moved into the national ranking category in 2022 after being Best in the West among regional universities, ranked among the top 15 percent of all national universities. SCU is now 59th in the country, up from 63rd last year.

“We are gratified to see our investments in outstanding faculty, innovative and relevant academic offerings, and student support reflected in these rankings,” says President Julie Sullivan. “We are equally proud of how our entire campus community is dedicated to educating each of our students as whole persons, so that when they graduate, they do so not just with competence in their chosen field, but also with the values and the compassion our world so greatly needs.”

The gains are a testament to the University’s teacher-scholar model and academic excellence. Undergraduates who unpacked, made friends, and said goodbye to their parents over move-in weekend learned on the first day of classes what that model means for them: Faculty focused on building and nurturing an environment where they can excel and flourish.

The new class was selected from the largest pool of applications the University has ever received—more than 20,000 applications for first-year admission.

Its members reflect progress on the University’s promise as laid out in the Impact 2030 strategic plan to offer a meaningful education to all qualified students. Scholars who are the first in their families to attend higher education represent a record 20% of incoming first-year students. Approximately 16% of the class of 2029 are Cal-Grant eligible. Through the California Promise program, all first-year, Cal Grant-eligible students will have their demonstrated financial need covered for their four years at SCU. The same is true for the 33 new students who attended Cristo Rey high schools through the Cristo Rey Promise program. The first-year students were joined by 253 transfer students from more than 185 institutions.

Students were welcomed with fanfare, including a late-night dance party and a welcome fair where they could be introduced to student services and clubs. They joined a tight network of values-driven, curious humans who make up the Bronco family. “As of this moment,” Sullivan told them in a welcoming address, “you are Broncos for life.”

 

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They also got some advice from Bronco and NBA champion with the Oklahoma Thunder Jalen Williams ’23, who returned to campus, trophy in hand, for a welcome-home rally. “When you are in class, try to ask questions. Try to hang out with people. Go to social events. Go to the games,” he says. “Life goes by fast. College goes by fast. I think those moments with other people help slow it down.”

It’s a journey that has just begun.