<p>Early</a> apps rise 7.9 percent despite struggling economy</p>
<p>Bowdoin ED +7.9% (direct from Bowdoin)</p>
<p>also reported & not in the master list thus far:
Colby ED +13%
Hamilton ED +8%</p>
<p>Corrections/updates</p>
<p>ED applications:
St. Olaf - Up 50%
Wesleyan - Up 40%
George Washington University-Up 30%
Duke - Up 25%
Pomono - Up 20%
Northwestern - Up 15 %
University of Richmond - Up 14%
Colby - Up 13%
Haverford - Up 13%
Dartmouth - Up 12.5%
Middlebury - Up 12%
Hamilton - Up 8%
Union College - Up 8%
Bowdoin - Up 7.9%
NYU - Up 2.3%
Dickinson - flat
Amherst - flat to slightly negative
Brown - <4.5>
Williams - <6.5> (as of 11/14)</p>
<p>MIT EA Up 25%
Stanford EA Up 18%
Yale EA Up 10.4%</p>
<p>Thanks Papa.</p>
<p>Early-Decision Applications Are Up at Colleges, in Spite of the Economy- NY Times</p>
<p>What you are seeing is a paradign shift in process. All the student who applied ED, have applicatons ready to send in other schools in the same timeframe. Enough Engineering schools have moved the bulk of their admissions to fall, that kids have to shift their applications prep to summer. And shift preliminary college visits to Junior fall and Junior winter. Junior spring is off limits due to AP exams and finals upon which admissions judgments will be made. </p>
<p>examples:
Frank Olin school of Engineering: all students must apply by December 19
Webb Institute: 50% of interview invitations are issued by Christmas
U Michigan: technically rolling admissions but banner on admissions page says " Fall submissions strongly recommended.</p>
<p>Therefore admissions judgments are much more based on Junior year grades and activities. Anybody who waits for Senior Christmas to write admissions essays is lost.</p>
<p>A lot of high school college counselors are in denial. They only want to deal with Seniors for college counseling. That's way too late in this environment. Students pretty much need to know what they are aiming for by Junior Christmas or before.</p>
<p>update today (11/21) on Penn State system:
[quote]
Applications for next year are also on the rise – at last count we have received nearly 44,000 applications, which is just over a 5 percent increase compared to the same period last year. As you may recall, last year we reached 101,500 applications.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Penn</a> State Live - Penn State Board of Trustees meets; President Spanier's remarks</p>
<p>Claremont McKenna College is 28% ahead in ED applications according to their Dean of Admission.</p>
<p>Well, my son is one of the ED applicants at St. Olaf's, which saw a 50% increase!!! He has had his eye on St. Olaf for over a year, well before USNews and World added the school to its top 50 LAC rankings. I think that the ranking is what accounts for the increase at that (wonderful) school. </p>
<p>There are enough of us parents who expect to pay (and saved to do so) full tuition, no matter what, that ED makes sense when our kids LOVE that one school. With the increase in numbers of kids graduating in 2009, I guess it was just the perfect storm....</p>
<p>Sadly, we lost some of our savings, but luckily, can still pay the cost.</p>
<p>I think that last year's juniors were carefully watching their senior counterparts and realized how much more competitive admissions had become to top tier schools. Given the higher acceptance rate for ED, they wisely chose that strategy in increasing numbers this year.</p>
<p>I think there are many situations at work here. I know that senior year used to be more of a fun year however many kids are taking upwards of 5 AP classes and sports, ecs, etc. I think they just want to be done earlier with all the added stress of school and know where they are going next year, so for many ED is the answer. The economy has slowed but I think people have the feeling that it is temporary and most of the economists agree, so I don't think the overall impact has hit higher ed yet. Also, many more colleges are increasing financial aid and are need blind encouraging a larger applicant pool. It is often a students best shot at admission and more kids are taking it.</p>
<p>wow, this NYT magazine article/blog mentions George Washington up 50%! (30% noted in prior posts) Must be GW's ED1.
An</a> Early Application for Certainty - Motherlode Blog - NYTimes.com</p>
<p>checking out the possibility of GW going from 30% to 50%, the original post of this thread by researchmaven pointed out the article on GW....they apparently extended their ED period from 11/10 to 11/27......so the increase from 30% is conceivable....may even end up higher. Could find no other external validation of the 50% beside the above posted NYT mention.</p>
<p>here's the original GW article:
Early</a> decision applications rise - News</p>
<p>also of interest, GW claims not to be hit financially as deeply as others (e.g., Harvard)....guess this is one case where a large endowment hurts.... the plusses of a large endowment are not so great when a school counts on endowment income for the operating budget. GW relies mostly on tuition revenue (lean & mean!):
News</a> Analysis: Outlook positive in poor economy - News</p>
<p>The significant rise in ED applications at St. Olaf can best be explained by the school's decision to eliminate the Early Action Procedure (see NY Times article, 11/21/08). Now the school has two Early Decision procedures (one due on 11/15 and one on 1/15, together with the regular application deadline of 1/15.</p>
<p>BTW, it's St. Olaf College, not St. Olaf's :)</p>
<p>That makes the change at St. Olaf practically inexplicable! In general, ED colleges get far fewer early applications than EA colleges, because the binding nature of ED is so relatively unfavorable to the students. Columbia gets roughly double the number of applications overall as the University of Chicago, reflecting its "Ivy" brand and posh Manhattan location, but its ED applications run roughly half of Chicago's EA applications (and far less than half of Yale's EA applications, again disproportionate to the two colleges' overall application numbers).</p>
<p>I can't imagine why the St. Olaf numbers would increase substantially with a change to ED. Did St. Olaf formerly have BOTH ED and EA, so that eliminating EA drove some applications to ED?</p>
<p>Yes, St. Olaf had both ED and EA, but got rid of EA this year (where they apparently got the bulk of their applicants). Getting rid of EA seems to be driving applicants to ED.</p>
<p>^Well that explains the giant increase in ED at St. Olaf. I'm still amazed at the increase of ED elsewhere though.</p>
<p>Well GW charges over $50K and that's a lot of money for revenue when you multiply the student population... That's what is mind-boggling about the rise in ED apps for schools with very expensive price tag during these times. Yes, yes, good point about wanting to be near the Obama administration but there are also other schools around DC area like in MD and VA... fickle kids.</p>
<p>Has anyone heard about ED rates at Vassar ? Hope fully it is not as high as Wesleyan ,since the two schools are sometimes compared together.My son is applying there. Thanks</p>
<p>Where did the number of 28% up at McKenna come from?</p>
<p>According to news articles, GW is positioned extremely well in this environment. Their endowment did not falter as much as some others, they have never been dependent on their endowment but rather on tuition and they hold a great deal of valuable real estate in D.C. One of their large commercial real estate projects has just begun getting rental income form tenants. This gives them a substantial additional income. GW is doing a lot of hiring this year while others are downsizing. They are also continuing with plans to build a large new science building. People are flocking to D.C. due to the changing of administrations and stability and availability of government jobs. That may all explain the GW ED. Oh, and I forgot to mention GW had pledged to protect their students financially and make more financial aid available to needy students. (Previously, they had already provided 91% of need). So I don't believe it's fickleness, Ticklemepink, but careful weighing of options.</p>
<p>ED applications:</p>
<p>George Washington University-Up 50%
St. Olaf - Up 50%
Wesleyan - Up 40%
Claremont McKenna - Up 28%
Duke - Up 25%
Pomono - Up 20%
Northwestern - Up 15 %
University of Richmond - Up 14%
Colby - Up 13%
Haverford - Up 13%
Dartmouth - Up 12.5%
Middlebury - Up 12%
Hamilton - Up 8%
Union College - Up 8%
Bowdoin - Up 7.9%
NYU - Up 2.3%
Dickinson - flat
Amherst - flat to slightly negative
Brown - <4.5>
Williams - <6.5> (as of 11/14)</p>
<p>MIT EA Up 25%
Stanford EA Up 18%
Yale EA Up 10.4%</p>