M Climb (Photo Credit: Kathleen Morton)

Incoming Mines students made the annual trek up to the M on Mt. Zion Aug. 18. They placed their rocks on the monument and gave everything (including themselves) a fresh coat of whitewash. A Mines education continues to be highly sought after, as evidenced by a record 13,200 applications received for the 2014-15 academic year. New undergraduate enrollment was 1,000 freshmen and 159 transfer students, making it the university’s largest incoming class. The incoming students match last year’s most academically prepared student profile with average ACT scores of 30 and high school GPAs of 3.8 on a 4.0