https://madamenoire.com/1219491/spelman-college-breaks-application-record/

Source: Marcus Ingram / Getty

Spelman College has broken a record with the amount of applications the school has received from prospective students. According to their website, the all-female historically Black college has received more applications for admissions than they ever have during their 140-year existence.

According to a news release, Spelman received 11,000 applications for the fall 2021 semester, which is a 20% increase in the number of applicants Spelman had in 2020.

“The increased interest in Spelman is a testament to the College’s reputation of graduating Black women with a competitive edge who rise to leadership roles across industries and impact positive change in their communities,”  Spelman’s president Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D. said in the release. “Our admissions team has done an excellent job of sharing our stellar outcomes with prospective students from across the nation. We are excited that these bright young minds are seizing the opportunity to experience our unique liberal arts education by applying to Spelman.”

Chelsea Holley, the interim director of admissions, said the record-breaking amount of applications is a product of the campaigning for historically black colleges and universities that has been happening in the past few years.

“From founding inaugural Black student organizations at their high schools to advocating for voters’ rights in the 2020 presidential election, this applicant pool has been civically engaged, committed to leadership and dedicated to the very mission of Spelman College,” she said.

The news release added that Spelman’s applications for admissions has been increasing since 2014.

Spelman College, which was founded in 1881, is ranked number one on the U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of historically Black colleges and universities. It is also ranked number four on the list of top performing schools on social mobility and number 10 in most innovative schools. Well-known Spelman alumnae include actress Keisha Knight Puliam, Stacey Abrams and A.J Johnson.