<p>"Our applicant pool increased greatly this year. Last year, we had 2,611 Early applications. This year, we received 3,812. That is a 46% increase for you stat-heads out there. This increase inherently means a few things.</p>
<p>1) We were more conservative in our decisions. Why? Because with such an increase in apps now, we really don?t know how many we will receive in Regular Action. For instance, should we expect to receive an extra 46% increase in Regular Action? Or, have we already absorbed the brunt of this year?s increase (ie, all the number of increased applications came via Early Action)? We honestly have no idea. And as such, we had to make sure that any student we admitted was so good that he or she would have been admitted regardless of when they applied. In other words, there are many students that were deferred this year who would have been admitted last year.</p>
<p>2) The quality of the admitted students went up. This follows pretty logically from #1 above ? if we were more conservative in our decisions, of course the average admitted student should look better. Last year, the average student admitted via Early Action was in the top 3.7% of their graduating class, had a 1420 SAT, or a 32.4 ACT. This year, those averages are top 3.1% RIC, 1442 SAT, and 32.7 ACT. You can also assume that less quantifiable factors such as a student?s rigor of curriculum and extracurricular involvement also got better. We just don?t have a handy stat to show you that."</p>