Early college admissions by the numbers

"Survey finds growing numbers apply in the fall to prestigious schools.

For many colleges, early applications are becoming the new normal.

At the University of Virginia, most applications arrive by Nov. 1 for the first round of freshman admissions. There were about 25,000 early hopefuls for the public flagship university’s Class of 2023, up 17 percent from the previous year. They will learn this month whether they got in.

Those who applied in the second round, ahead of the regular Jan. 1 deadline, will receive decisions by the end of March. Everyone admitted has until May 1 to decide whether to enroll." …

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/01/05/early-college-admissions-by-numbers/?utm_term=.af06e003e016

NYU up 42%. Rice up 39%. URochester up 35%. It is a crazy world out there.

Yet some others flat or slightly down. Some very divergent trends.

Interesting article. Great chart.

Great year for Barnard, Rice, Duke, Brown, NYU & Univ. of Rochester.

Notre Dame, Virginia & Swarthmore all have double digit gains as well. But, Notre Dame & Virginia are non-binding EA apps.

Williams College is down. Time to break out the merit scholarship dollars ?

@Publisher - I would think so. But also, perhaps some kids, facing 10+ applications to do, are starting to self-select. The trend also seems to be towards schools in more metropolitan areas.

I’m wondering if it isn’t that a lot of students are looking towards and engineering/liberal arts combination, and so applications are up at schools that offer both?

Mind blowing stats.

Time will tell what the overall application numbers will be once the RD apps are counted.

Some schools who were not members of common app (like VT and JMU) joined coalition app. I wonder if that played into some of those overall stats (not UVA of course, but others who used to be stand alone applications directly to the college. When it’s “easier” to apply, I bet those numbers rise.

Both Williams & Middlebury are down or neutral. Both rural. Dartmouth is up, but it is larger than an LAC & an Ivy League member.

NYU up. Means folks have money to spend.

I think that students are looking for job opportunities. Easier for recruiters to get to cities & easier to recruit at larger schools, maybe ?

NYU’s ED1 pool is almost as big as the total ED pool in the last CDS (fall 2017 entry). Be interesting to see if the trend holds for ED2. NYU since last year has said it plans to take a greater % of the class from ED, underscoring the advantage to applying ED, so that may have encouraged some applications.

Comparisons directly between the numbers are a bit tricky with REA, one ED pool only, ED1 pool and EA all in there and all leading to different incentives to apply.

Rice is probably up 39% because of the Rice Investment, announced in September:

  • Dreams that have the potential to shape the world live in the hearts and minds of students from all backgrounds. Rice University has a legacy of investing in those dreams, beginning with our charter as a tuition-free institution more than a century ago. We still believe that talented students deserve the opportunity to realize their full potential – to create, to discover and to transform.

That’s why there’s The Rice Investment, one of the nation’s most generous financial aid initiatives that increases access to an affordable, quality education for low- and middle-income students. Beginning in fall 2019 under The Rice Investment, middle-income families with typical assets will receive grant aid to cover full tuition if they earn up to $130,000 per year, and half tuition for families earning between $130,001-$200,000. In addition, students with family incomes below $65,000 will receive grant aid covering not only their full tuition, but also all of their mandatory fees and room and board. Students receiving aid under The Rice Investment will have all demonstrated need met without any loans. *

https://financialaid.rice.edu/thericeinvestment

“half tuition for families earning between $130,001-$200,000. I” . that is awesome. should be a sweet spot for kids they want if they publicize it.

Regarding Rice, the family also has to have typical assets for their income. If a family makes $150k but has two million in the bank, you can be sure there is no half tuition for them. I looked into it st one point and I don’t remember what they thought was typical but it is limiting.

In their frequently asked questions, it says they consider home equity in addition to cash and investments when deciding on typical assets and will cover need with grants for those between $150-200k income. It really sounds like a family would have to have an EFC less than the cost of Rice in order to even be considered for this new program. It’s not a merit program for full price families.

Personally not an ED fan - definitely doesn’t work in favor of students with financial need.

The Rice Plan is a step in the right direction but like @Homerdog mentioned you just don’t qualify automatically if your income is in those ranges. They look at other factors regarding your overall financial picture. And the arbitrary cut off’s are dumb too, a person making $202,000 is on the hook for the whole tuition vs somebody making 199,000?

In regards to the article, I personally found it interring that URochester applications were up so dramatically.

Agree

ED EA confer a statistical admissions advantage and it will only get worse. HYP admit half their class EA with admission rates double to quadruple their RA rates and even accounting for legacy, athletes it’s easier to get in EA although that delta has been narrowing as of late… for colleges it also artificially boosts yield. so apply early and often if you can.