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Yale received 3,541 early applications this year, representing a 13 percent decrease from last year, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeff Brenzel said Thursday. </p>
<p>The decrease in early applications for the Class of 2011 may have resulted from a reaction to last year's record-low acceptance rate, among other possible factors, administrators said. Last year, 4,084 students applied early to Yale's class of 2010 under the single-choice early action policy, and an Ivy League-low 17.7 percent were accepted. No other Ivy League colleges have released their early admissions statistics yet, but Stanford University received 4,733 early applications, marking a five percent increase over last year. </p>
<p>Yale College Dean Peter Salovey attributed the drop in applications to the decreasing likelihood of getting an acceptance letter from Yale. </p>
<p>"We are not sure what caused the decline in Early Action applications, and it is possibly a one-time event," he said. "As Yale's admit rate has dropped significantly in recent years, perhaps some applicants, pessimistic about their chances of getting into Yale, are simply not applying here." </p>
<p>Brenzel said he is not certain why Yale experienced this decline, since admissions representatives visited more schools and conducted more information sessions this year than ever before. While he said there are a number of possible explanations, he suggested that students were put off by last year's low acceptance rate for early applicants.
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