<p>How come the number of applications for every major university have shot up by a larger percentage? Isn’t the recession bitting into everyone’s pocket? Then how else can this unusual phenomenon be explained? I am very very very very worried about my chances… I simply can’t sleep at night…</p>
<p>Thanx for ur time…</p>
<p>Maybe it’s precisely because the recession IS “biting” into everyone’s pocket (unless you really mean we’re all like horses, maybing carrying “bits” in our pockets). So perhaps kids have to apply to MORE schools…just to see if there are ANY schools to which they can both be admitted - AND receive reasonable financial aid. </p>
<p>Additionally…there is quite a vicious circle going on. Harvard says “we’re going to give more aid to middle class”. So their applications go up. Then Yale and Princeton says “Hey…us too!” And THEIR applications go up. Suddenly acceptance rates are DOWN at each of these. Then other top schools offer more aid and suddenly “sure thing” applications are receiving denials. One has to be even MORE stellar each year as the applications rise. So they have to apply to MORE schools to try and get even one admit. Snowball effect.</p>
<p>That…and the fact that you’re the tail end of a mini baby boom (last children of the last children of the original 50s baby boom).</p>
<p>Increasingly large wage benefit for those with a college degree to those without has also increased the size of the college-going cohort.</p>
<p>Increasingly differential aid at top schools versus other places. Increased willingness to move far from home for college, i.e. more national and international market.</p>
<p>It shouldn’t matter either way. I mean, it’s not like suddenly there are 30% more extremely intelligent people graduating this year than who were graduating in 2009. So your chances should essentially stay the same. Or that’s what I’m telling myself.</p>
<p>It will matter, when you look at the fact that the demographics of the pool has changed. Drawing more applicants, in Brown’s case, is largely due to drawing from a wider net of potential students.</p>
<p>Might have something to do with how easy it is to apply, via common app. Seems to me that every year students apply to more and more schools. 3 or 4 was the norm when I graduated. Now it seems more like 10-12. The number of HS grads has certainly not risen that much, so…</p>
<p>Emma Watson. 'nuff said.</p>
<p>I really think the recession caused the surge in apps. Many students are drawn to the generous financial aid packages available at Ivies, and many perceive Brown as being “less competitive” than, say, Harvard or Yale.</p>
<p>[The</a> Emma Watson Effect | The Ink](<a href=“http://www.universitypressclub.com/archive/2010/01/the-emma-watson-effect/]The”>The Emma Watson Effect | University Press Club)</p>
<p>Or, more importantly: [Prince</a> joke issue really stresses out College Confidential posters | The Ink](<a href=“http://www.universitypressclub.com/archive/2010/01/prince-joke-issue-really-stresses-out-college-confidential-posters/]Prince”>Prince joke issue really stresses out College Confidential posters | University Press Club)</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>Emma Watson has nothing to do with it, as fun/funny as it is to say it.</p>
<p>haha @rockermcr that was hilarious. :)</p>
<p>Even if people are applying to more schools now, that just means yield will go down across the board so more people will be accepted from the waitlist. Things will balance themselves out.</p>
<p>HAHA Princeton.</p>
<p>I would have been like that first poster, since I didn’t apply there either ( ;
Ah. We are all so hilariously predictable.</p>
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<p>That logic is flawed.</p>
<p>I dunno about what some of you are saying, But Emma Watson, was a comfortable number four out of the top five reasons I applied to Brown.</p>
<p>How is my logic flawed? With roughly the same number of students in the class getting many more acceptances due to the high number of schools they applied to, they can only send an SIR to one school, meaning they will decline going to all their other acceptances. With people applying to so many schools, they will attend the best school they get into, while the other schools they decline will have to accept more from their waitlist. That is, unless the schools have accounted for this rise in apps.</p>
<p>I see what you mean now, but I don’t think that there’s a significant difference in the number of schools students applied to compared to last year or the year before. If anything, more students are applying to Ivies and other top schools due to their excellent financial aid, but that doesn’t mean these students will ever actually get in. Of course, there are a few who will, who may never have even considered applying to Ivies/top schools if the economic situation were different, but they won’t be so significant in number as to severely decrease the yields at other, less prestigious colleges. Just my take…</p>