Hampshire College to Admit Pared-Down Freshman Class Next Year

The Board of Trustees of Hampshire College (MA) announced on Friday that it would admit a much-reduced freshman class this fall, a sign of the increasingly perilous operating environment for small liberal-arts colleges in demographically challenging regions like the Northeast.  Next year’s admittees at the Massachusetts college will be limited to two groups of students: those who applied via early decision and those who had accepted the college’s offer to enroll last year but opted to take a gap year and start in the fall of 2019.