Many colleges reported class of 2025 admit rates in recent days/weeks. A partial list is below. Most of these are record low. I thought Princeton was particularly interesting. Princeton did not have an early round, which probably contributes to why they had a smaller increase in applications that most other highly selective privates – 14.5% increase. Rather than a huge increase in applications, the huge decrease in admit rate more relates to admitting more than 300 fewer students than any previous year. The 200 deferred students contributes to this, but it doesn’t fully explain, particularly with the likely reduced yield from no early round. Maybe they plan to admit a lot of people from the waitlist later on due to COVID-related yield uncertainty?
With Bowdoin not getting a test optional boost, and apps actually slightly declining, Colby could be more selective. It’s definitely an odd year and will be interesting to see how long schools stay TO or even go to test blind.
Now starts the yield game. Which schools take the biggest yield hits with students applying to more highly selective colleges?
Bowdoin published their admit rate yesterday (Acceptance rate increases slightly to 8.8 percent for Class of 2025 – The Bowdoin Orient) – 8.8%, which is not a record. They had a lower 8.3% increase last year. This fits with receiving fewer applications than last year. Bowdoin has been test optional for decades, so they are not expected to see a big test optional boost this year Would be Bowdoin applicants in other years might instead choose to apply to Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, or numerous other test optional colleges. I’ve added Bowdoin to the list in the first post.