By Paulo Fugen

Northwestern University in Qatar has welcomed the class of 2017, which had an acceptance rate of 21 percent, the lowest in the school’s short history.

“This is a very low acceptance rate,” said Wafaa Elamin, an admissions specialist at NU-Q, “This is the most competitive admissions season we have seen.”

According to Elamin, the school accepted 69 students from a pool of more than 328 applicants for the graduating class of 2017. From the 69 that were accepted, fifty-eight students have decided to attend NU-Q.

The group of students- with 28 in communications and 22 in journalism- represent 16 nations spread across four continents, with students hailing from Venezuela, Jordan, Canada and the Philippines. Approximately 50 percent of the class are made-up of international students.

“It feels great being a part of this diverse group,” said Vibhav Gautam, a communications freshman from India. “People from different places also have different point of views which can help us in learning more about a given subject.”

Qataris make up a little more than half of the incoming class. Fourteen members of the class are graduates of Qatar Foundation’s Academic Bridge Program.

NU-Q’s incoming student body also happens to be the smartest class yet. The average SAT score for the top 35 students is 1723 out of a possible 2400, a sharp increase from last year’s score of 1682. In the IELTS test, an examination for students who are second language English speakers, the average score among the top 35 students was 7.5 out of 9, which is nearly a 10 percent increase from last year’s score of 7.

But despite the boost in standardized test scores, NU-Q also remains a uniquely female dominant school, with 73 percent of the class being female. “There are still too many girls at Northwestern,” said Elamin.

“I come from a non co-ed school,” said Gautam, “But I don’t find it too hard getting used to the ratio here because we all are working and studying in the same field and direction.”