Last year saw the lowest increase in applications to the most selective schools in about a decade, which probably indicates a degree of saturation (in outreach, test-optional strategies, etc) and a stability in the number of applications the average student is making.
Hi…I will be following this thread as I do each year and appreciate all of the research/detailed comments the posters put into it.
I realize that this is obvious, but worth restating that we need to be cautious in looking at overall admission rates because they can be quite deceiving, most notably in the schools that offer ED (especially the ones that offer ED I, ED II and EA). And comparing competitiveness to a school that offers only EA to a school that offers ED can also be deceiving (although more and more schools are now offering ED).
Knowing the difference between a school’s ED rate and their true RD rate can be very helpful to a prospective applicant. If we use the common data set to check numbers (if they are even reporting their ED numbers, not all schools do), we have to back out the ED applicants from the Overall applicants to figure out the RD rate. (I know this is straightforward math).
This should be an interesting year with all of the craziness going on.
Between Early and Regular Action, 20,075 students applied to join the MIT Class of 2024. As of today (inclusive of Early Action), we have offered admission to 1,457 students.
This year, 9,291 students applied for early admission to MIT, and we have offered early admission to 687. We deferred 6,792 applicants.
I’m always wary of Tulane and their “statistics.” I know of several kids that were admitted this year with 25, 26, 27 on the ACT. They were admitted for the following school year. They were NOT high stats kids. They were full pay and applied ED.