APPLICATIONS GROWTH Class of 2012

Parent Cafe
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<p>Or look it in the mirror:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/l-r/rapelye/rapelye-FPO.jpg[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/l-r/rapelye/rapelye-FPO.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>While Harvard’s President Drew is a bit harder to spot, Janet seems to have lost its luster as a male name. :)</p>

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<p>Jeepers. Sorry. I forgot her first name, obviously.</p>

<p>Note that Chicago’s RD applications seem to have increased almost 7% – more than Princeton’s – following a 42% increase in EA applications. So the evidence on how great it is to abandon early admissions programs is pretty mixed.</p>

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<p>Oh, JHS, I thought it was funny, and we all can use a bit of levity when seeing the increase in numbers. </p>

<p>As far as comparing the increases at Princeton and Chicago, it is not unwise to keep a bit of historical perspective. When it comes to the ratio of applications to enrollment, Chicago has had a much lower number (fewer applicants for each available spot) and a higher acceptance rate (still 40% 2 years ago.) Without portraying Chicago in an unfavorable color, shall we say that Chicago lagged its peer schools in attracting both high numbers of applicants, especially among the most qualified students. As we know that could have been by design as the school enjoyed its “uncommon” approach. But that is a different issue.</p>

<p>The vast increases at Chicago are part of the process of “catching up” that was started by revamping its reporting to the USnews and becoming more applicant friendly. IMHO, a most welcome --and most needed-- improvement.</p>

<p>PS A quick comparison of last year’s numbers</p>

<p>Princeton versus Chicago
Admitted 1,791 to 3,628
Applies 18,942 to 10,408
Admit % 9.46% to 34.86%</p>

<p>One way to look at it is that Chicago attracts 1/2 of the applicants for about the same enrollment and has to admit between 3 and 4 times more students on a percentage basis.</p>

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<p>My point is not limited to Chicago. Northwestern – whose applicant/slot ratio is not unlike Princeton’s, although its yield is much lower – had a much larger increase than Princeton, both in absolute and relative terms, without ending its ED program. It attracted more than twice as many additional RD applications than Princeton, on top of a modest increase in ED applications. (NU went from 1,300 ED/21,000 RD to 1,500 ED/23,500 RD; Princeton went from 18,900 to 20,100. Chicago went from 3,000 EA/7,400 RD to 4,400 EA/7,900 RD. Note that roughly 3/4 of Chicago’s increase was in the EA pool, which indicates that what’s going on is not just Chicago “catching up”, but people voting for EA.)</p>

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<p>JHS, the catching up plays a role when applicants perceive strategic opportunities or admissions’ loopholes in the form of higher acceptances and then weigh those opportunities against their own set of preferences. </p>

<p>Applying EA at MIT does not yield much of advantage in admissions. Applying ED at a school that accepts 35-40% of its applicants does attract attention. </p>

<p>Applicants do react to changes in perceived opportunities and … prestige. In other cases, the adoption of a simpler application form coupled with higher admission number might work wonders (see Cornell.)</p>

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<p>quinnipiac is up 20%
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/13colct.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/13colct.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;
(article is about college admissions in CT)</p>

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<p>yet another article on Northwestern’s increase…overall ~12%
[NU</a> sets new application record - Campus](<a href=“http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2008/01/15/Campus/Nu.Sets.New.Application.Record-3152632.shtml]NU”>http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2008/01/15/Campus/Nu.Sets.New.Application.Record-3152632.shtml)</p>

<p>this article reports 13.9%
[Terre</a> Haute, Indiana Weather, News, Sports and Entertainment WTHI.com, News 10, Leading the Way! | University receives record number of applications](<a href=“http://www.wthitv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7624790&nav=menu593_2]Terre”>http://www.wthitv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7624790&nav=menu593_2)</p>

<p>[the first article, a NW newspaper, used the same numbers (25000 this year, 21941 last year) as the second source…but the NW newspaper’s math looks wrong, 13.9% correct.]</p>

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<p>Since I commented about Cornell past increases, I better add the 2012 numbers:</p>

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<p>Did Harvard pay a price for dropping its early admission policy? </p>

<p>We’ve got the answer:</p>

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<p>Source: [A</a> record applicant pool for the College — The Harvard University Gazette](<a href=“http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/02.07/99-admissions.html]A”>http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/02.07/99-admissions.html)</p>

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<p>xiggi-- you are truly a fact-hound…thanks for keeping us up to date.</p>

<p>Here’s a summary of growth rates [(Class of '12 applicants / Class of '11 applicants) - 1] reported on this thread thus far. Please remember than most are interim estimates (& in some cases guesstimates) & we should expect the numbers to change. Although this is far from a robust data set to draw too many conclusions from yet, I find it interesting that the less selective schools reported thus far seem to be seeing greater increases on average than the more selective ones on average. Of course, there is likely some biased reporting here toward schools that have “good” news, i.e., high growth rates, to get public quickly. We’ll see how things shake out.</p>

<p>Ball State 30%
Brown 7%
Charleston 20%
Cornell 7%
Dayton 37%
Harvard 18%
LeMoyne 5%
Middlebury 7%
North Dakota 11%
Northwestern 14%
Princeton 6%
Quinnipiac 20%
Virginia 3%</p>

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<p>PC, thank you, but this stuff is easy … and much easier than tracking down the elusive CDS forms. </p>

<p>Fwiw, if you’re still compiling the lists of CDS, you should know that the schools have been adding the 2007-2008 version to their websites at a furious pace. It seems that January is a month where updates are warranted. </p>

<p>And, yes, there are still quite a few schools that believe this information needs to be kept hidden from prying eyes and request passwords. Of course, others simply ignore the “publication” element altogether. </p>

<p>On the other hand, there schools that make a real effort in making data available that goes beyond the CDS. One such school is St Olaf and the result is quite remarkable. </p>

<p>[St</a>. Olaf College | IR - CDS Summary](<a href=“http://www.stolaf.edu/offices/ir/Pbl/Over/cdssum.html]St”>http://www.stolaf.edu/offices/ir/Pbl/Over/cdssum.html)</p>

<p>[St</a>. Olaf College | IR - CDS 2007-08](<a href=“http://www.stolaf.edu/offices/ir/Pbl/Over/cds07.html]St”>http://www.stolaf.edu/offices/ir/Pbl/Over/cds07.html)</p>

<p>[St</a>. Olaf College | Institutional Research](<a href=“http://www.stolaf.edu/offices/ir/]St”>http://www.stolaf.edu/offices/ir/)</p>

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<p>[Midwest</a> college applications soar :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education](<a href=“http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/741168,CST-NWS-apply15.article]Midwest”>http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/741168,CST-NWS-apply15.article)</p>

<p>puts Chicago at 18%, Northwestern at 12%</p>

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<p>Why do you think 41% more students applied ED to Vanderbilt this year?</p>

<p>Vanderbilt ED 803 1,133 41.10%</p>

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<p>this is purely anecdotal, but I have heard, as a native of the Mid-Atlantic, that many seniors in our area who are looking at selective colleges are now diverting their customary interest in Northeast schools, toward the South & elsewhere, due to the stress factor of applying to NE schools that as a group have lower acceptance rates. I think that the increased level of competition has caused the student market to do a more thorough look, and the South has much to offer. To me, this doesn’t explain the magnitude of Vanderbilt’s ED increase, though.</p>

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<p>Vandy has also reported that the total number of applicants for the 1,550 spots in next year’s freshman class is also running more than 40 percent over the same period last year, and that high school seniors certainly seem to like The Commons. </p>

<p>The Commons, the university’s living-learning community for first-year students that begins next fall, is apparently a particularly attractive selling point.</p>

<p>Some might find reading the Admission Blog at Vandy interesting. For instance, the uploaded images of the application process are … colorful:</p>

<p>[Vanderbilt</a> Admissions Blog: December 2007](<a href=“http://vandyadmissions.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html]Vanderbilt”>http://vandyadmissions.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html)</p>

<p>[Vanderbilt</a> Admissions Blog: January 2008](<a href=“http://vandyadmissions.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html]Vanderbilt”>http://vandyadmissions.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html)</p>

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[The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: Harvard Reports Jump in Applicants](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=521566]The”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=521566)</p>

<p>EDIT: Applications also surge at Princeton and UVA</p>

<p>[Applications</a> surge at colleges that scrapped early decision - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/01/applications_su_1.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed4]Applications”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/01/applications_su_1.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed4)</p>

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<p>[The</a> Daily Pennsylvanian - Lowest-ever early admit rate matched at 28 percent](<a href=“http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=dcab0697-84c9-4a2f-bb0b-6c063197f03d]The”>http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=dcab0697-84c9-4a2f-bb0b-6c063197f03d)</p>

<p>Penn’s early decision acceptance rate decreased by 1 percent from last year to match the school’s lowest-ever admissions rate of 28 percent.</p>

<p>Of the 3,912 high-school seniors who applied to Penn early decision last fall, 1,147 were accepted in December.</p>

<p>Those students will compose about 48 percent of the Class of 2012. The 28-percent acceptance rate matches the low set by the class of 2010.</p>

<p>Interim Dean of Admissions Eric Kaplan characterized this incoming class as “more diverse than last year’s class at this point.”</p>

<p>The percentage of international students increased from last year’s record of 9.5 percent to a new high of 10.2 percent.</p>

<p>Of the international students, the greatest percentage hail from Canada, India, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Panama, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.</p>

<p>Though the number of U.S. minority students admitted remained about the same, the percentage of admitted students who are underrepresented ethnicities increased slightly - a result of a smaller acceptance pool.</p>

<p>Penn admitted 72 black students, 235 Asian American students, 77 Latino students and six Native American students.</p>

<p>Geographically, 43 states are currently represented by the Class of 2012, down a hair from last year’s 47 states.</p>

<p>Test scores increased slightly overall. On the SAT, Critical Reading scores dropped one point to 696, Math scores stayed even at 722 and Writing scores improved seven points to 712.</p>

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<p>This is truly messed up. I’ve heard that next year will be worse, which isn’t good news for juniors like me</p>

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<p>It sounds like applications have surged everywhere this year. There were a lot of kids born in 1990!</p>

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<p>So M+V = 1418. if you look at the ED decision thread though, you’d think it’s like 1500! just goes to show how stats posted on CC are so skewed!</p>

<p>By the way, is that ED or EA? If that’s ED, then UPenn has like 50% of its class coming from ED? That doesn’t sound right…</p>