We already know how many applied ED (1,572). We also know they accepted 27 early through Questbridge.
If they have released how many were accepted early for prior years we could calculate this year since they said ED acceptances were up 3% this year, but I’m not aware where prior year ED specific admit data is published for Bowdoin. Also not aware they have specifically published the RD-only applicant pool previously.
But I think the common data set usually lists how many applied ED and how many accepted and then one can back those numbers out of the total.
2 years ago Bowdoin ED apps = 960 and ED admits = 263. I haven’t seen numbers for last year.
Very possible. I skimmed the CDS but may have missed it… https://www.bowdoin.edu/ir/pdf/common-data-set-2022-23.pdf
The ED data are in section C21
For the Fall 2022 entering class:
Number of early decision applications received by your institution:
1,009
Number of applicants admitted under early decision plan:
267
Fall 2022 ED acceptance Rate =
267/1009 = 26.5%
So if ED acceptances increased 3% to ~ 29.5%
Then 1572*0.295 = 464 admitted ED?
I calculated a ~3.8% acceptance rate for RD.
Please check my math! 
I’d do that math differently. The quote from Bowdoin is:
“the Office of Admissions admitted 3 percent more students than usual during ED I and II.”
So what grew 3% is the number of students admitted through ED (it’s not the acceptance rate that grew 3%).
Therefore, if ED acceptances last year were 267, than this year they were ~267*1.03 = 277.
850 total admitted - 277 ED = 573 admitted RD. (I’m presuming here that QB are included in the ED totals).
RD applications = 10934 total - 1572 ED = 9362. The RD pool would actually be a little bigger than this due to ED deferred students, but we don’t have that number.
So RD acceptance ~573/9362 = 6.1%. Maybe if you include ED deferred in the pool, it’s 6.0%.
Feel free to check my math, though!
I agree with your methodology and your interpretation that it was 3% more ED admits, not a 3% higher ED acceptance rate.
Bowdoin appears to have revised it’s total applicant pool number from the February BO article that quoted the 10,934 you used and the release this week that quoted 10,966. It’s not enough to change the resulting RD admit rate.
The real question is, which you noted, is how many ED applicants did they defer? Does this data exist anywhere else for past years? Some schools defer most or even all of their non-accepted ED pool.
There were 1,295 people not accepted in the ED pool. For the sake of argument, if Bowdoin deferred half and rejected half, that would add 648 people to the RD pool, making the total 10,042. If that were the case, the RD admit rate would drop to 5.7%. It’s pretty easy to extrapolate +/- that depending on the ratio of ED deferrals.
Final RD admit rate is 5-6%.
I remember doing this math for the class of 2019 and RD acceptance rate was around 8% so it’s definitely gone down!
Typically, when schools disclose RD application #s, they include the ED deferrals, not just the applicants who were “new” in the RD round. You’ll be able to verify that when they release their CDS numbers when they disclose total applications. Regardless, It was hard to get an acceptance.
The outgoing President of Bowdoin basically confirmed the same thing to my friend (father of D21 currently attending Bowdoin). He basically said they place a very high priority on personality/character in the admission process.
I wonder how that stacks up against the demographics of their applicant pool?
That would be good to know, but I’ve never seen that data.
Anecdotally, my son’s experience confirms this. He was extremely high stats and National Merit Scholar - so clearly qualified for admissions based on stats and leadership alone. But when he arrived on campus for admitted student days, his AO recognized him from his optional video response and complimented him on how we came across in that video. In other words, that is likely what stood out for him in the process and differentiated him from all of the other qualified high stats kids in the pool with him. That’s why I always encourage applicants to do all of the optional essays/interviews because these smaller LACs can be highly selective and are really trying to get know individual students.
Does anyone know the results of college decision day on Monday?
How many students accepted and plan to enroll for the class of 2027?
This article describes the total # of applicants and the percent accepted. This gets you to the 2023 acceptance rate of 7.7% - the lowest in history from the largest applicant pool in the school’s history. They admitted 850 students and plan to enroll 500. In recent years, I believe Bowdoin’s yield rate was around 60% so they were planning for a similar yield. I have not seen any data on this year’s yield rate. It is still early.
Any update on the waitlist movement?
Not on my end
Wow 60 percent yield? Is that high? I don’t know that much but seems high.
I believe that rate is correct. Bowdoin has been really good at estimating their yield, at least for the five years I’ve been paying attention. Always ends up with 500-520 kids.