The First-Year Activities Fair at Bates College reminded Sulochana Dissanayake ’09 of Colombo, Sri Lanka, “of a market back home with people selling their wares.”

Accustomed to a system that rewards status rather than ability, Dissanayake discovered that “Bates provides many opportunities to all its students.” Her first semester on campus, she directed a play with the Robinson Players, a student theater group. “I had literally just gotten off the plane,” she says. “That amazed me. Here, if you are serious about something, you can do anything you want.”

Like many international students, she chose economics as a major, but her love of the stage lingered. The Office of Career Services put her in touch with an alum whose contacts yielded a 2006 summer internship with VEE Corporation, a Minneapolis-based firm that provides live entertainment for children. Spending every spare moment attending productions at the nationally famous Guthrie Theater, Dissanayake concluded that she couldn’t live without the stage. Upon returning to Bates, she declared a double major.

“Coupling theater with something steady like economics gives my parents a little relief,” Dissanayake laughs.

Distance from family is a challenge for international students, she says. But new activities and academic rewards distract her from homesickness. “I have twice as many opportunities here as I would have had if I stayed at home,” she says. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else but Bates.”

There were 3.6 applications for every first-year student admitted to the Class of 2006, with 419 new first-year students expected when fall semester starts Sept. 4. Bates received more than 4,000 applications for the third year in a row. In all, 1,742 active degree-seeking students will be enrolled on campus or in Bates-sponsored off-campus programs in fall 2002.

Bates reached a record level of selectivity this year with an acceptance rate of 27.5 percent. (The next most selective class was the Class of 2004, with an acceptance rate of 28.3 percent.) The 38.2 percent yield rate – the percentage of accepted students who sent deposits – dropped back to more typical levels from last year’s extraordinary 43.6 percent.

The ratio of women to men in the new class remains near parity, with 212 women and 207 men.

The Class of 2006 includes 37 U.S. citizens who identified themselves as racial or ethnic minorities, 39 international students, and another 14 students who hold dual citizenship in the United States and another country. Nearly 18 percent of all students who sent deposits for fall 2002 are international students or students of color.

The top foreign countries represented in the first-year class include Japan with six students, India with four and Jamaica with three. There are two new students from each of these countries: Bulgaria, Canada, Malaysia, Mauritius and the United Kingdom. In all four class years, there are 126 international students. Bates students represent 74 countries, either by birth or by citizenship.

The Class of 2006 includes students from 36 states. New England states provide 56 percent of the total, with 95 students from Massachusetts, 51 from Maine, 37 from Connecticut, 35 from New Hampshire, 13 from Vermont and eight from Rhode Island.

Other states with 10 or more students include New York (39), New Jersey (16), California (11) and Pennsylvania (10).