The academic profile of incoming freshman classes at Ohio State has improved in the past eight years.

The grades of all undergraduate students have gone up, but not by a large amount as the academic profile of incoming students has improved. The grades of incoming freshmen during their first year at Ohio State have also increased in the past five years, but not by a large amount.

“We have not necessarily become more selective, since roughly ’95 we have sought to improve academic profiles of incoming freshman classes each year,” said Allen Kraus, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions.

Kraus said there were too many students failing out and the university was looking to change that by improving the overall academic profile of incoming freshman classes. Along with improving the academic profile of incoming freshman classes, the university was seeking to improve cultural diversity of incoming freshman classes, Kraus said.

Figures from the undergraduate admissions office show average ACT test scores of incoming freshman classes have improved.

In 1995, the average ACT test score of incoming freshmen was 22.8, and in 2002, the average ACT score for incoming freshmen was 25.2.

The undergraduate admissions office also has figures which show the number of incoming freshmen ranked near the top of their graduating high school classes has increased.

In 1995, 21 percent of the incoming freshmen came from the top 10 percent of their high school classes, and 46 percent came from the top 25 percent of their high school classes.

In 2002, 32 percent of incoming freshmen came from the top 10 percent of their high school class, and 67 percent came from the top 25 percent of their high school class.

Another problem was too many students were placing into remedial level classes, Kraus said.

“The number of students taking remedial level classes has gone down since we sought to improve the academic profile of incoming freshman classes,” he said.

In 1995, 23 percent of incoming freshmen placed into remedial level math, and in 2002, only 7 percent of incoming freshmen placed into remedial level math.

The incoming freshman classes have performed slightly better each year since 1998, according to the university registar.

After spring quarter of 1998, first year students had an average cumulative GPA of 2.614; after spring quarter of 2000, freshmen had an average cumulative GPA of 2.657; and after spring quarter of 2002, freshmen had an average cumulative GPA of 2.761.