Springfield, Ohio - This week Wittenberg welcomes one of its largest and most talented classes of first-year students in years. Although the official count will not be available until early next month, current calculations place the new class at 704 students.

Classes for the 2000-2001 academic year begin on Monday, Aug. 21 with a total day program student body of 2,160.

The first year class is 14 percent larger than last year’s entering class at this point. The incoming class of 2004 is one of Wittenberg’s largest for native-born students since the early 1980s, according to Kenneth Benne, dean of admission, who has been at Wittenberg for 28 years.

But it is not just the size of the class that has Wittenberg administrators smiling. Other important indicators are also up: students in the top 10 percent of their high school class, up 18 percent; honors program students, up 40 percent; Ohio residents, up 10 percent; students from outside Ohio, up 22 percent; students from Clark and contiguous counties, up 42 percent.

New students will enjoy several days of orientation and social events during Welcome Week before upper class students return next week.