<p>Son got a nice note from his very pleasant and responsive admissions rep. who said there were something like 36,000 applicants this year. </p>
<p>Wow.</p>
<p>I am hearing those numbers at more and more schools as kids apply to 10-20 places. It must wreck havoc with the adcoms who try to figure out yield projections.</p>
<p>Yikes.</p>
<p>My son only applied to 6 schools, all of which he genuinely liked and would be happy at and that we could afford (with the possible exception of Fordham, if he doesn't get a scholarship).</p>
<p>I cannot imagine the stress of applying to 20 schools but I understand the impulse when faced with competition/numbers like these.</p>
<p>I blame admissions (of the elite schools). Using the Holistic thing, they are driving the kids into a holistic frenzy of unreasonable hope. The majority of whom will never be seriously considered. It’s bottlenecking the whole system. Why do they do it?</p>
<p>Fordham also send out a lot of invitations to use their “Your Choice” application which is free. I think this free application leads a number of people who do not consider Fordham a top choice to apply just as a safety. I guess it is up to admissions to understand the applicant pool and handle the acceptances/yield.</p>
<p>Fordham’s apps have increased from 11,000 to 15,000 to 18,000 to 22,000, to 27,000, to 34,000 to 36,000…a steady and sharp increase in 10 years or so. Part of that is demographics and part of it is the common application phenomenon. Fordham’s yield is still too low in my opinion. </p>
<p>However, Fordham is also devoted to a diverse community, including pell grant kids and underrepresented minorities. Proud of that.</p>
<p>In coming years it will decline as the demographics shift…the population bubble wanes. </p>
<p>admit rate will be around 40%.</p>
<p>I definitely think that part of the problem with Fordham yield is the financial aid problem. Highly qualified -on the edge of greatness- kids will go to similarly ranked schools that give more money. For instance, almost every kid who has a cut off GPA and SATs gets full Tuition at Pitt. That is really appealing for OOS kids. For all those kids in the middle (great stats but didn’t make ivy league) there is an entire tier of schools that aren’t rich enough to give better aid so the kids who need FA drop down and go to schools that give great merit aid. </p>
<p>That leaves Fordham with very poor or very rich kids (or kids with tons of debt) and that means they miss out of lots of fantastic kids, long term improvement of the quality of the student body and some potential future donor alumni.</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents</p>