Admissions Statistics Breakdown

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>Hi everyone! I’m a huge freak and thought that it might be fun to crunch some numbers about Yale admissions. I hope this stuff is as interesting to you as it is to me! :p</p>

<p>(For the class of 2017)</p>

<p>Total Applicants: 29,790
EA Applications Received: 4,520
EA Applicants Admitted: 649
EA Acceptance Rate: 14.40%
EA Applications Deferred: 2,569
EA Deferral rate: 56.84%</p>

<p>RD (Non-Defer) Applicants: 25,270
Total Applicants Considered in RD: 27,839</p>

<p>Target Admit Total (varies slightly by year): ~2,000
“Spots” Left After EA Admission: ~1351</p>

<p>Projected RD Admit Rate: 4.85%</p>

<p>Projected Overall Admit Rate: 6.71%</p>

<p>Here's where things get a little strange! :p</p>

<p>Looking at the common data set provided (graciously) by Yale, you can see under section C1 that of applications received for the 2011-2012 admissions cycle, female applications outnumber male applications about 6 to 5. This historic imbalance is good news for guys because Yale prefers to admit an equal amount of men and women (actually, for ’16, Yale admitted about 60 more men than women, but I’ll chalk that up to unpredictable variation among applicant pools and stick to 50-50), so the admit rate for men is likely to be slightly higher than that for women.</p>

<p>Common</a> Data Set (CDS) | Office of Institutional Research</p>

<p>Here’s the math (assuming that the ratio of 1 male to 1 female admitted during EA was maintained):</p>

<p>1,351 “spots” left in the RD round ÷ 2 genders ≈ 676 “spots” for men and 676 “spots” for women</p>

<p>27,839 RD Applications * (5/11) ≈ 12,654 male RD applicants
27,839 RD Applications * (6/11) ≈ 15,185 female RD applicants</p>

<p>676 “spots” ÷ 12,654 male applicants = 5.34% male admission rate
676 “spots” ÷ 15,185 female applicants = 4.45% female admission rate</p>

<p>Of course, this math must be taken with a heaping of salt, because this year’s set of numbers has not been released (if it had, I would be highly suspicious of time-traveling Yalies! ;) ). Sorry if this upset any prospective lady Yalies––I didn’t actually go looking for this data. I’ve just spent way too much time thinking about the admissions process...</p>

<p>Anyways, I hope that this post was interesting. While it doesn’t reveal any earth-shattering information, it does provide a new perspective on the admissions process, and how factors outside of our control may play a part in the decisions. There may be many subcategories of applicants in which you are unknowingly competing!</p>

<p>While a projected difference of 0.89% isn’t HUGE... well, neither is the overall admit rate :)</p>

<p>On a happier note, I really do hope that everyone’s Yale dream comes true. We’re all very hardworking people and highly qualified in our own ways. I’d like to wish all of you the best of luck!</p>

2

<p>Interesting number crunching. A missing datum is what is the gender ratio of SCEA and QB admits? What if it’s already skewed towards one group?</p>

3

<p>Yes! I took a few liberties in my calculations. I’m a QB finalist myself (didn’t match), and would love to know more statistics about their match. However, QB hasn’t officially released any juicy figures.</p>

<p>It would be so fascinating to “look behind the scenes” of the admissions department.</p>

4

<p>Interesting. Thanks for sharing. And enjoying crunching numbers doesn’t make you “a huge freak!”</p>