College Admissions Statistics Class of 2021: Early and Regular Decision Acceptance Rates

Changing the subject and this is probably not nearly as interesting as the more recent schools you have been discussing, but I saw that Villanova added ED this year. So they now have ED and EA, which I know a lot of schools now have (like Chicago). I just thought it was interesting because so many of the Catholic schools that Villanova shares applicants with (namely Georgetown, Notre Dame and BC) only have EA. (In fact, Georgetown, Notre Dame and BC have REA.) I’m wondering if these other schools are now going to follow suit and offer ED so they don’t lose applicants. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

@collegemomjam I think Villanova is used as a “safety” for the high stat Catholic kids who target ND, Georgetown and BC. They’ve spent a lot of time and money studying their admissions and perceptions to potential students. It’s a fabulous school I wish them well.

Hello, @collegemomjam , I was on a few Villanova threads a couple of years ago because my son was accepted EA and was a Presidential Scholarship finalist. On one of the threads, a Villanova insider from the school chimed in and said that they want to go in the direction of the other Catholic universities mentoned and start offering need based financial aid only. They want to get away from the merit awards that are seen as a way to woo students away from these other competitor schools. They want to stand on their own merits. They have given this a lot of study, and are probably starting to institute a plan with the ED this year.

@Winky1 They need a lot of money/endowment in order to do that and it’s still a big risk. They would need a lot of full pay kids in order to make that happen and I’m not sure that Villanova is yet in the league that parents think it’s “worth it” to full pay $65K at Villanova-where they may think it’s worth it to pay for ND, GT, BC because of perceived prestige.

They would need to fund all the athletic kids plus the Financial need kids without the all the merit kids who pay 40-50K in tuition to go there.

I hear you, just telling what I learned from previous threads.

Villanova’s applications have soared over the last 4 years. The school in its peer group BC/GT has engineering/ plus a top tier B school-Bloomberg ranked it #1 for UG. With the ED process it will be very very hard to get in unless you are a rock star without ED

Interesting to see what will happen with Villanova.

Can someone talk about NYU??

As a first year pumpkin I think it is beneficial to apply ed as that is the best way to get in.

NYU 27% acceptance rate
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2017/april/nyu-s-accpetance-rate-drops-to-lowest-in-16-years.html

No breakout ED/RD.

Villanova saw it’s biggest jump in applications (and therefore decrease in acceptance rate) last year. I think the rate dropped like 14 points or something unheard of like that. Definitely a combination of the NCAA Champ in 2016 and the B school accolades. It will be interesting to see if they maintain those stats this year without the win and now that Bloomberg (once again) stopped their rankings. I think the B school there will continue to be hard to get in…not so sure about liberal arts. Even last year I had a client that got into Villanova liberal arts and only a waitlist at BC. No way would she have gotten into Georgetown or Notre Dame. Nonetheless, these are all great schools and anyone who gets into any of them should consider themselves lucky.

Another top Liberal Arts College, Dickinson College, reported the following 2017 admissions rates:

Applications = 5941
Acceptances = 2894
Enrolled = 606
Acceptance Rate = 49%
Yield Rate = 21%

*So, Dickinson had fewer applicants than the year before and a slightly lower yield rate – but a higher acceptance rate (that was still below 50%). Even with these variations from year to year, Dickinson is still a highly-selective LAC that consistently ranks among the top best American colleges. Definitely a very strong liberal arts college worth considering with other places like Lafayette, Occidental, Franklin & Marshall, Lehigh, Bates and Middlebury.

@lovesoldbooks, the decline in applications at many schools, as outlined in the attached, is a cause for concern at all schools. While the most selective universities and LAC’s will likely continue to see an increase in applications, most will continue to battle https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/05/15/this-trend-could-destabilize-some-small-private-colleges-if-it-continues/?utm_term=.d1adba467e42. While the article focuses on small LAC’s, several state flagships have also been battling.

Excellent article, Chembiodad! Thanks!

Of course Nova wants to get away from merit and do only need-based. Because that is what all the top schools do. But it is a hard thing to actually pull off. Requires a big brand and a big wallet.

The schools with the biggest brands don’t do merit and they also don’t do ED, only REA/SCEA. That’s HYPS in the secular world and ND and Gtown in the Catholic world. BC does that too, although it would be more logical for them to be doing ED and/or merit in order to poach from ND and Gtown above them.

Nova’s new ED option will definitely help them poach from the higher up Catholics and perhaps lessen their dependence on merit aid over time. I’d guess that it would be most effective against BC. If that happens, I wouldn’t be surprised to see BC roll out ED at some point.

Nova presumably is trying to take advantage of their huge NC hoops publicity and also finally making it onto the first page of the USNWR national rankings.

@northwesty that’s a great analysis and I agree BC should offer ED. I know kids that would take advantage of it. I am interested in what happens to Villanova…I increasingly hear about students that are unhappy there…not academically, but socially and student life wise. Housing was horrible this year and some freshman have a difficult time socially and it doesn’t necessarily get better. I hear this more than many other schools.

By the way…BC does give a little merit aid. They give about 15 full tuition Gabelli Scholarships per year. They pick about 60 kids and then they interview them. I think it’s very very selective. I thought my daughter would at least get the top 60 having been Valedictorian and near perfect SAT scores, amazing EC’s and service/awards, etc. Plus she is legacy from me and has a sister there now (maybe that hurt her because they thought she was more likely to come??). But she didn’t get it. It’s a shame because she might have gone there had she received it, we all really love the school. She is at Georgetown now.

@northwesty which rankings did Villanova get on the first page for? I might have missed that one.

For years, Nova had been ranked as one of the top “regional” universities in the east. Last year they got re-classified by USNWR as a “national university.”

So they now are in the top 50 of the big boy group.

“By the way…BC does give a little merit aid. They give about 15 full tuition Gabelli Scholarships per year. They pick about 60 kids and then they interview them. I think it’s very very selective.”

ND does the same – about 15 Hesburgh Scholars per year which is good for 1/2 tuition. SUPER competitive and limited, so not really the kind of merit aid folks are usually talking about here on CC. Gtown, I think, does not do even one penny of merit.