Staff Reporter

CARNEGIE Mellon University in Qatar hosted orientation for its third class of incoming Business Administration and Computer Science students last week, welcoming 38 students and bringing the total enrollment to 124 students.

"For the first time in its three-year history, Carnegie Mellon Qatar accepted a higher number of men than women," a spokesman said in a release.

"Historically, Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh has enrolled more men than women," said Bryan Zerbe, the director of admissions at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. "Even though we have more men than women in our incoming class, female students still make up a larger portion of the student body in Qatar."

The Class of 2010 comprises 21 male and 17 female students. In the Business Administration programme, there are 13 females and 11 males.

Of the 14 incoming Computer Science students, 10 are males and the rest females.

The incoming class was drawn from an applicant pool that was nearly 34% higher than in 2005, Zerbe said.

The class includes six students who graduated from the Academic Bridge programme. The class hails from 28 secondary schools in Qatar and 10 schools from six different countries. This year, five students received academic merit scholarships.

The new class is made of students from 14 countries. Of the total, 40% are from Qatar, while 40% are from other Arab countries and the rest from various Asian countries.

The fall 2006 semester begins today. Applications for the 2007/2008 academic year are now being accepted, the college official said. Details can be obtained from the website www.qatar.cmu.edu.