Applications Surge 42%

http://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/admissions-applications-soar-thanks-to-more-accessible-process

and here’s an article from philly.com http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150128_Swarthmore_apps_soar_as_essays_shrink.html

So rumors of an early demise due to various controversies were greatly exaggerated. As, I might say, I suspected. My son (now a Swat freshman) had to write those two extra essays. They were not insignificant, especially since they were a bit redundant with one another.

I wonder how the 42% increase in total applications from last year to this year applies in terms of ED applications? Did ED applications increase as well and by how much?

The ED numbers for previous four classes according to Swarthmore’s Common Data Sets were as follows:

Fall 2014 entering class: 555 ED applications, 200 accepted
Fall 2013 entering class: 538 ED applications, 177 accepted
Fall 2012 entering class: 575 ED applications, 180 accepted
Fall 2011 entering class: 533 ED applications, 156 accepted

The number of ED applications and acceptances for the last four years seem very consistent. I’m very curious how these numbers played out this year?

^I think what that means is that those students who were committed enough to apply to Swarthmore ED (binding) were willing to write the two (long) extra essays. RD applicants, who were probably applying to 8 or 10 or 12 schools, not so much.

Well this isn’t good. Now I know I won’t get in. Oh well!

@Ctesiphon‌ … I would suggest the increase will have a very small impact on those selected.

You can do research on this (if you want), but my memory is that Swarthmore accepts slightly over 900 applicants to yield the class of just over 400. Their yield rate is in the low 40’s (including ED), so what you have at Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Haverford, and the other highly selective LAC’s are kids who often pick an Ivy.

The additional apps received this year are (I suggest) primarily from two groups: Ivy kids who threw in an extra app because it was a bit easier this year, and kids reaching a bit who figured “why not play the lottery for $60”. Neither of those kids are ultimately going to have more than a very slight impact the kids attending Swarthmore.

It’s not a lottery, and the decisions made are based on information. If you are number 905 or 910 this year, you may have been impacted…but it’s only a dozen or two that are impacted (I suggest).

Good luck

i hope that is the case.

Swarthmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr’s applications all increased this year. Increased interest in the LACs and TriCo.

“Colleges Use Bag of Tricks to Juice Application Numbers” (Bloomberg manages to mention all three…)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-12/colleges-use-bag-of-tricks-to-juice-application-numbers

Hey, they mentioned my high school in that article!!!

I wonder how the yield rate is affected when this happens.

Last year Kenyon dropped their supplemental essay completely (despite being a college known for its writing program -go figure) and waived their application fee for just about anyone with a pulse and their applications soared by more than 60%. Their yield dropped from 31% to 27%, which doesn’t seem like much except that they salvaged that by raising their binding early admits to more than 50% of their class and more than doubled their wait list (which meant that almost 2/3 of the applicants were either admitted or wait-listed). What the general public (and US News) sees is that their admit rate plunged from about 39% to 25%. What other college AdComs see is a very clever job of enrollment management. I would suspect that Swat’s admission folks are also very good at what they do, and the yield won’t change much.

This post from @Paraxat on the 2019 decision thread is a compelling answer to those who questioned the steps taken by Jim Bock.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/swarthmore/1751506-official-swarthmore-class-of-2019-rd-decision-thread.html