College Admissions Statistics Class of 2020: Early Decision & Early Action Acceptance Rates

[spayurpets]

I found this discussion topic to be a good place to aggregate this information, so I am setting up a new discussion as it comes in for the Class of 2020. If you post new statistics, please source your information. Here are some to start off–

Brown ED 669 out of 3030 (22%) http://www.browndailyherald.com/2015/12/10/u-admits-22-percent-of-early-applicants/
Harvard SCEA 918 out of 6173 (14.9%) http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/12/first-admissions-to-class-of-20/
Penn ED 1335 out of 5762 (23.2%) http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/12/early-decision-acceptance-rate
Stanford REA 745 out of 7822 (9.5%) http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/december/early-admit-announce-121115.html

[spayurpets]

And some more:

Duke ED 813 out of 3455 (23.5%) https://today.duke.edu/2015/12/ed2015-16
Johns Hopkins ED 584 out of 1929 (30.3%) http://hub.jhu.edu/2015/12/11/early-decision-class-of-2020
Williams College ED 246 out of 585% (42%) http://communications.williams.edu/news-releases/12_11_2015_earlydecision/

[spayurpets]

University of Georgia ED 7500+ out of 14516 (51%+) (did not state exact number of acceptances) http://news.uga.edu/releases/article/early-decision-2015/

[spayurpets]

Here is the list in rank order; I’ll try to update the list at the end of tomorrow’s spate of announcements:

Stanford REA 745 out of 7822 (9.5%)
Harvard SCEA 918 out of 6173 (14.9%)
Brown ED 669 out of 3030 (22%)
Penn ED 1335 out of 5762 (23.2%)
Duke ED 813 out of 3455 (23.5%)
Johns Hopkins ED 584 out of 1929 (30.3%)
Williams College ED 246 out of 585 (42%)
University of Georgia ED 7500+ out of 14516 (51%+)

Not much public disclosure by the colleges, but if data is contained in acceptance/rejection letters, feel free to share!

[spayurpets]

The one that is shocking is the Stanford acceptance rate of 9.5%. They are the first school, so far as I know, to break the 10% barrier in Early Action/Early Decision. Let’s hope that this is not a number that HYPM chase after.

[spayurpets]

For comparison’s sake, here is the early list from the first batch of schools on last year (Class of 2019) compiled by @xiggi–

Brown 617 3016 20.46%
Dartmouth 483 1856 26.02%
Duke 815 3180 25.63%
Harvard 977 5919 16.51%
MIT 625 6519 9.59%
Stanford 743 7297 10.18%
Williams 244 593 41.15%

[spayurpets]

Oops, never mind about my earlier Stanford statement being the only sub-10% early acceptance rate. As the list in post #4 shows, MIT had a sub-10% early acceptance rate last year. I guess one thing we could do to distinguish the schools is that Stanford has a 10% acceptance rate while maintaining a Division I sports program. We can probably guess that more than 200 of their 750-odd early acceptances go to recruited athletes, whereas MIT is going to be below 100, since they have a Division III sports program and no football.

[spayurpets]

Northwestern ED 1061 out of 3022 (35.1%)

Northwestern fills more than 50 percent of the class of 2020 through Early Decision

Northwestern accepted 1,061 students to the class of 2020 through Early Decision on Monday night. NU received the most Early Decision applications in University history this year with 3,022… Of the 1,061 new students admitted, 106 were international students — a nearly 25 percent increase from the number of international students admitted through Early Decision last year.

http://dailynorthwestern.com/2015/12/15/campus/northwestern-fills-more-than-50-percent-of-the-class-of-2020-through-early-decision/

[goldenbear2020]

Adding Yale:
http://news.yale.edu/2015/12/15/795-early-action-applicants-admitted-class-2020

Stanford REA 745 out of 7822 (9.5%)
Harvard SCEA 918 out of 6173 (14.9%)
Yale SCEA: 795 out of 4662 (17.1%)
Brown ED 669 out of 3030 (22.1%)
Penn ED 1335 out of 5762 (23.2%)
Duke ED 813 out of 3455 (23.5%)
Johns Hopkins ED 584 out of 1929 (30.3%)
Northwestern ED 1061 out of 3022 (35.1%)
Williams College ED 246 out of 585 (42.1%)
University of Georgia ED 7500+ out of 14516 (51%+)

[Corinthian]

What’s shocking to me is Northwestern filling over 50% of its class through ED. Even though they claim to have higher numbers of low income students, it’s hard to believe this doesn’t primarily advantage more affluent applicants. Plus it’s just going to add to the pressure to apply ED early for students for whom it’s not appropriate. Those students can’t feel good seeing more than half the available spots disappearing.

[netter11]

NU has a great marketing campaign, my daughter must have received over 50 emails, mailings that were so convincing! I wonder how the marketing attempts correlate with rising applicants.

[spayurpets]

I read that Penn also filled more than 54% of their class with ED.

[CollegeGrad79]

@netter11 University of Chicago seems to be an expert at marketing which leads to rising applicants and lower acceptance rates.

[goldenbear2020]

Just 4 years ago:
Schapiro said although the percentage of classes NU fills with early decision applicants has risen from 25 percent for the class of 2010 to 40 percent for the class of 2016, he does not want to further increase admittance levels.
“I wouldn’t push it much more than that,” he said. “There are schools that have been over 50 percent early. I think that’s not early any more; that’s regular and the rest is late. That’s semantics if you think about it. I don’t want to be one of those schools.”

http://dailynorthwestern.com/2012/02/02/campus/campusarchived/in-focus-why-early-action-doesnt-apply-to-northwestern/

[spayurpets]

Some more schools’ data trickling in:

Princeton SCEA 785 out of 4229 (18.6%)

Princeton University has offered admission to 785 students from a pool of 4,229 candidates who applied through single-choice early action for the Class of 2020. The pool was the largest in the last five years, representing a 9.8 percent increase over last year’s early applicant pool.

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S45/02/99M42/index.xml?section=topstories

[spayurpets]

A veritable treasure trove of data disclosed by Dartmouth!

Dartmouth ED 494 out of 1927 (25.6%)

Dartmouth Accepts 494 Early Decision Applicants
December 16, 2015

The College today offered 494 students a chance to become the first members of the Class of 2020, drawing from the largest number of students to apply for early decision in Dartmouth’s history. The 1,927 applicants represent a 3.6 percent increase over last year’s early decision pool.

“The students we’ve admitted are a strong base for the Class of 2020,” says Paul Sunde, interim dean of admissions and financial aid. “Their talents and wide range of perspectives and prior experiences will enrich our entire campus, from our classrooms, libraries, and laboratories to studios and performance spaces, Dartmouth’s new house communities, and beyond. We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome them to Dartmouth.”

The students learned of their acceptances at 4 p.m. today by signing on to a secure website. Sunde says the admitted group is the most diverse group to be accepted early at Dartmouth in a number of years. “This year’s applicant pool is extraordinary in its academic strength and diversity,” he says.

Of the accepted students, 30 percent are students of color, up from 26 percent last year, and 11.5 percent will be the first in their families to attend college, up from 9 percent last year, the largest percentage since the College began tracking this information. Almost 9 percent are international students, up from 8 percent last year, and represent 20 countries. The accepted students come from 46 states and Washington, D.C.

Among the accepted students who attend schools that report rank, 90 percent rank in the top 10 percent of their high school class. The group has a mean SAT score of 2156 (out of 2400), and mean ACT score of 32 (out of 36). Public high school students represent 48 percent of admitted students, with 37 percent from private schools, and 15 percent from parochial schools. The daughters and sons of Dartmouth graduates make up 19 percent of the accepted students. Forty-eight percent of the admitted group applied for financial aid.

http://now.dartmouth.edu/2015/12/dartmouth-accepts-494-early-decision-applicants

[spayurpets]

Georgetown EA 892 out of 7027 (12.7%)

Early Admissions Rate Remains Consistent

Georgetown accepted 13 percent of its early action applicants to the Class of 2020 this past week, an acceptance rate consistent with that of the last several years. The university mailed acceptance letters to 892 of a record-high 7,027 applicants Friday, marking an early action acceptance rate equal to the 13 percent for the Class of 2019.

“In my opinion this has been the most diverse and the most talented pool we’ve seen,” Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon said.

About one-third of the expected 20,000 total applicants for the Class of 2020 applied early action. Georgetown expects to offer admission to about 3,200 students to complete a class of 1,600, according to Deacon.

Deacon emphasized that the university aims to keep the acceptance rate for early action below that of regular decision, as the early action pool generally comprises more privileged students.

“We don’t want to over-admit early, because the early pool tends to be slightly more advantaged. We want to give everybody a fair chance and are also looking for diversity,” Deacon said.

The admissions committee accepted applicants from 48 states and 38 foreign countries. Nine percent of admitted students are African-American, 10 percent are Hispanic, 14 percent are Asian-American and 1 percent is American Indian. Seven percent of international students were offered admission…

Deacon also said the university’s continued use of an application separate from the Common Application has led to a smaller applicant pool, from which the admissions office is able to draw information about students in a more individualized way.

“By not accepting the Common Application, we actually get a pool of students we know more about, when they answer our questions,” Deacon said. “Our pool of 20,000 could be a lot larger if we did [accept the Common Application] but we wouldn’t know as much about them, and we might accept different people.”

The Walsh School of Foreign Service admitted 207 of 1,434 applicants, an acceptance rate of 14 percent. The other three undergraduate schools each welcomed 12 percent of applicants. Georgetown College accepted 481 of 3,917 students, the McDonough School of Business admitted 143 of 1,178 and the School of Nursing and Health Studies accepted 61 of 498.

The average admitted student was in the top 2 percent of his class, with average SAT scores of 690-780 and 700-770 in critical reading and math, respectively.

http://www.thehoya.com/early-admissions-rate-remains-consistent/

[cbound88]

MIT EA 656 out of 7,767 (8.4%)
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/mit-early-action-decisions-now-available-online3

This year, 7,767 students applied for early admission to MIT, and we have offered early admission to 656. These students hail from more than 500 high schools scattered across the globe, from Alaska to Zimbabwe. We can’t wait to welcome them to campus to join the 4,527 outstanding undergraduates who already call MIT home. Though they all do different things — construction and cross-stitch, algorithms and astrophysics, deontology and design — they are united by rigorous academics, high character, and a strong match with MIT’s global mission to better humankind…

We deferred 4,776 applicants. These students will be reconsidered without prejudice in Regular Action. Deferred students do not need to send us anything new other than the February Updates and Notes Form, which will become available in mid-January on your MyMIT account.

Because of the competitiveness of our pool, we have already informed 2,175 students that we will not be able to offer them admission this year. This decision has been made with care, and it is final. I know this can be a difficult decision to receive; please trust that we have done our best. Take a deep breath, shake it off, and go crush the rest of your college applications this cycle.

The balance of the applicants - 160 - either withdrew from our process before we issued decisions or had incomplete applications and were not considered in Early Action.

We recognize it’s a lot of effort for all of you to apply to MIT. It’s an honor and a privilege for us to read your applications. Thank you.

Again, congratulations to the newest members of the Class of 2020. I’ll be closing comments on this post to focus the conversations on the open threads for admitted, deferred, and not-admitted students.

All best, everyone, and happy holidays.

[spayurpets]

MIT EA 656 out of 7,767 (8.4%)
Stanford REA 745 out of 7822 (9.5%)
Georgetown EA 892 out of 7027 (12.7%)
Harvard SCEA 918 out of 6173 (14.9%)
Yale SCEA: 795 out of 4662 (17.1%)
Princeton SCEA 785 out of 4229 (18.6%)
Brown ED 669 out of 3030 (22.1%)
Penn ED 1335 out of 5762 (23.2%)
Duke ED 813 out of 3455 (23.5%)
Dartmouth ED 494 out of 1927 (25.6%)
Johns Hopkins ED 584 out of 1929 (30.3%)
Northwestern ED 1061 out of 3022 (35.1%)
Williams College ED 246 out of 585 (42.1%)
University of Georgia ED 7500+ out of 14516 (51%+)

[spayurpets]

Georgetown continues its very strange strategy of having exceedingly low early action admission rates and then having higher admit rates in the Spring. If it follows the same pattern, Georgetown will accept around 18% of the regular decision cohort (vs. 12.7% for EA) I don’t pretend to understand whether this is a good or a bad thing for the college, but at some point won’t students figure out that they are better off applying to Georgetown regular decision?

To be fair to Georgetown, maybe they are ones who are treating all students fairly (i.e. treating applications equally whether early or regular) and it is all the schools that are gaming their applicants by giving early appliicants a leg up but lying that they aren’t. I just don’t know what to make of this stark contrast in their EA numbers.