<p>"CAMBRIDGE, Mass. A record 29,000 people have applied for a spot in next fall's freshman class at Harvard University."</p>
<p>Harvard</a> gets record 29,000 applicants for fall - Yahoo! News</p>
<p>Wow..... That would happen too. Well, so, anybody ready to get into a second-tier university? Thought I had to share this.</p>
<p>This would happen too... lol</p>
<p>I think the other colleges that publicize their financial aid packages with the dismal economy had applications shoot through the roof. LACs which have similar financial aid no loans policies, but with less publicity received a drop in the applications. Colby and Middlebury got a drop in applicants and other LACs extended their deadlines possibly to get more applicants.</p>
<p>That's a fairly modest increase, + 5.5% or so. Still, an impressive number. I think it reflects two trends in response to a troubled economy: 1) "flight to quality," and 2) bargain-hunting. Harvard's in the sweet spot at the intersection of both. A Harvard degree is the ultimate blue chip educational investment; nothing risky there. And Harvard's generous FA policy makes it a real bargain for those eligible for need-based aid (and as I understand it, that group goes much farther up the income scale than at most schools). YPSM should be in a similar sweet spot. But so are the better publics, many of which are reporting double-digit increases in applications.</p>
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But so are the better publics, many of which are reporting double-digit increases in applications.
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<p>Definitely. GT had an 18% increase in early apps (allows for consideration for a scholarship). I hate to spew platitudes, but money is definitely a deciding factor this year. I'm sure flagships are going to be very popular.</p>
<p>But more importantly, for us 010ers, that means well prolly be up against over 30k other applicants next year =/. go us. </p>
<p>i must admit though, these increases in applications really dont mean that its that much harder to get in. i mean, there are a lot of people applying from my school this year cuz the supplement is easy compared to other schools, and i know that pretty much all of them are just joke applications and theyre essentially just throwing up a prayer. so id say that the number of competitive applicants doesnt go up that much every year.</p>
<p>^No, From what I have heard the HS Class of 09 was the largest HS class ever. It is supposed to drop off slightly I believe for 10, atleast that is what our HS counselor told us.</p>
<p>well yeah, thats true. but still, if you consider the fact that naturally people are gonna apply at a higher rate youre gonna end up with more applicants regardless of the size of the senior class overall.</p>
<p>Plus that # of extra applicants from '08 to '09, and even from '09 to '10 (if there's an increase next year as well) may very well be composed merely of students who aren't quite Harvard-qualified, but are just "giving it a shot" because the deal is so sweet with the need-based aid. So the number of competetive applicants may not increase that significantly, although the # of applicants might.</p>
<p>Do you people think that's a 5% increase in QUALIFIED applicants? Please. I know people with 1600s applying.</p>
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Do you people think that's a 5% increase in QUALIFIED applicants? Please. I know people with 1600s applying.
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<p>I looked into the significance of increased numbers at selective colleges on this</a> thread.</p>
<p>Application numbers make it more difficult only if there are more top scoring applicants on the SAT, seeing as the number in the Top 5% of all the high school classes doesn't change.</p>
<p>There are more top scorers on the SAT. Even in the last few years, there are 23% more 750-800 Math scores. So, that makes things harder.</p>
<p>The thing is though, since at least 2003, there has been no increase in the number of 750-800 Critical Reading scores, during which time the number of such Math scores increased by a third. </p>
<p>So, given a typical Harvard applicant with great grades, EC's, etc., if you further stand out with a high Math score, then your application has a lot more competition. If you stand out because of a top Critical Reading score, Harvard, despite steady increases in the number of applicants, is likely seeing no increase in the numbers of applicants with your stand-out score.</p>
<p>To answer a question asked above, here is my usual FAQ on the subject. The friendly participant bclintonk has pointed out on other threads that my FAQ deals mostly with one echelon of colleges, and indeed that is my intention, as that echelon of colleges attracts high interest here on CC. </p>
<p>DEMOGRAPHICS </p>
<p>Population trends in the United States are not the only issue influencing the competitiveness of college admission here. The children already born show us what the expected number of high school students are in various years, but the number of high school students in the United States, which is expected to begin declining in a few years, isn't the whole story. </p>
<p>First of all, if more students who begin high school go on to college, there will be more applicants to college even with a declining number of high school students. And that is the trend in the United States and worldwide. </p>
<p>Second, colleges in the United States accept applications from all over the world, so it is quite possible that demographic trends in the United States will not be the main influence on how many students apply to college. The cohorts of high-school-age students are still increasing in size in some countries (NOT most of Europe). </p>
<p>Third, even if the number of applicants to colleges overall stays the same, or even declines, the number of applicants to the most competitive colleges may still increase. The trend around the world is a "flight to quality" of students trying to get into the best college they can in increasing numbers, and increasing their consensus about which colleges to put at the top of their application lists. I do not expect college admission to be any easier for my youngest child than for my oldest child, even though she is part of a smaller birth cohort in the United States. </p>
<p>And now I would add to this that at the very most selective colleges that have just announced new financial aid plans, next year's (and the following year's) crush of applicants will be larger than ever. When colleges that are already acknowledged to be great colleges start reducing their net cost down to what the majority of families in the United States can afford, those colleges will receive more applications from all parts of the United States, and very likely from all over the world. </p>
<p>The Economist magazine published a brief article about these trends in April 2008. </p>
<p>University</a> admissions in America | Accepted | The Economist</p>
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There are more top scorers on the SAT. Even in the last few years, there are 23% more 750-800 Math scores. So, that makes things harder.</p>
<p>The thing is though, since at least 2003, there has been no increase in the number of 750-800 Critical Reading scores, during which time the number of such Math scores increased by a third.
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<p>The current source for those figures is </p>
<p>and each August a list comes out like this with SAT scores for one high school graduating class. I get the impression from your earlier thread that you checked the section-by-section documents from College Board, or some source that cites those, for the last few years. All-arounders who score well in all three sections continue to be rare. </p>
<p>What has increased radically in recent years is high school students who take really tough courses in high school, as indicated by dual-enrollment credits or AP test scores. There are "only" about 700 AP National Scholars at the end of junior year (in time for that award to show up on college applications) </p>
<p>but that must be a much higher number than it was sometime several years ago. Harvard and other highly desirable colleges get to sort through piles of applications that include applications from students who have gone far beyond just scoring well on the SAT.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about numbers, but I do agree that an increase in numbers does not necessarily mean "more competitive", although it may be the case.</p>
<p>I too know/heard of at least hundreds by now applying for the hell of it because it's "Harvard", with applications that honestly any honest person would admit being an auto-reject (2.8GPA, 1600SAT, a couple EC's, no hook, etc)</p>
<p>Brown went from 21,000 to 25,000... that's a 19% increase... aaaaahhhhhh</p>
<p>Have a lot of schools published their numbers already?
where are you guys finding these numbers?</p>
<p>Is this a situation that more qualified students decide to apply to multiple ivy schools or more unqualified students start applying to an ivy school?</p>
<p>^ Both, IMO</p>
<p>~~~, that's a very good question.</p>
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I get the impression from your earlier thread that you checked the section-by-section documents from College Board, or some source that cites those, for the last few years.
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<p>I provided links in that thread to the .pdf's from the College Board, which were reports for each year. What I still am not clear on is whether these scores included multiple scores from the one test-taker, or were the best score of each test-taker for that year. I think it might include multiple scores.</p>
<p>On the table I used, College Board compiled the number of all scores 750-800 for each year. On the link you provide above, I'd need to compile all the numbers for those scoring 800, 790, 780 etc.</p>
<p>I haven't seen any mention anywhere of the increase in 750-800 Math scores in comparison to the stability in 750-800 Critical Reading scores. Why should this be the case? It might have something to do with what your NYT article mentions:</p>
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But the number of Hispanic and Asian-American graduates will increase sharply, according to projections.
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<p>It might have something to do with Flynn Effect visio-spatial video game training while books gather dust. Maybe the Math SAT can be more easily cracked by test preparation. No way to tell, without concerted study into the numbers.</p>
<p>I think the relative stability in CR increase its value in comparison to Math, as colleges do not know whether the 30% extra supply of 750-800 M SAT is the real deal, or might represent fluff. The steady-as-she-goes 750-800 Critical Reading population presents no such questions.</p>