Early Decision Applications Up despite Financial Meltdown

<p>Tromboneplayer91- So you would not enroll at Amherst if the finaid is not adequate? Did the Amherst ED contract say you could do this?</p>

<p>no if i'm accepted to amherst i will absolutely find some way to pay for it, i just mean that all ED agreements say that if you can demonstrate that your package is absolutely inadequate and you cannot afford to attend, then you can back out of your commitment</p>

<p>A lot of the increase is a pendulum effect resulting from the harvard princeton decision to eliminate ED/EA last cycle. MANY top candidates avoided binding ED at other schools in the hopes of getting into Harvard/Princeton and were left hanging. This had a ripple effect throughout the top universities and record numbers of top applicants were waitlisted, many at multiple schools. Stories like "I was rejected by Harvard and waitlisted at Duke, Dartmouth, Penn and even Chicago and Johns Hopkins" were common last year. So this year top applicants are taking a different tack. They are more willing to forego their ultimate reach school for an acceptable school that offers more of a sure thing. If this continues, and top applicants (especially top minority applicants) are skimmed off the pool early, Harvard and Princeton may rethink their present position.</p>

<p>Any news on Bucknell's ED numbers?</p>

<p>I disagree to some extent with mia305- I think it has more to do with how everything politically and economically seems so uncertain, so people are more willing to commit to a school to have at least one thing entirely settled. I just find it hard to believe that top students would "settle" for easier schools in such large number simply because they are insecure about their chances at top schools.</p>

<p>I think the ED increase can also be attributed to the sheer number of applicants in general this year. The class of 2009 has an enormous class, so statistically wouldn't that filter down to an increase in ED as well as RD?</p>

<p>This year's graduating high school class in the U.S. is infinitesimally larger than last year's. The "sheer numbers" are not enough to increase anyone's applications by as much as 0.5%.</p>

<p>I stand corrected...</p>

<p>no news yet on Bucknell, Penn or Chicago. Expect we'll hear shortly on Penn & Chicago (11/1 early deadlines).</p>

<p>can any tell more about the ED states of cornell and upenn??</p>

<p>Cornell ED up 9%</p>

<p>haven't found any new reports this morning. The Daily Pennsylvania is not publishing today & will resume tomorrow, 12/2, so perhaps we'll hear about Penn's ED numbers then.</p>

<p>Can we start a rolling admin #'s too...</p>

<p>Is the common app strongly linked to an increase too? Know most schools on list have a supplement but getting rejected ed is easier if only a supplement needs to be added...below are the new members to Common app. How do the #'s look at these new members compared to before common app???</p>

<p>New Members
We're pleased to announce a record number of new members -- 33 -- admitted to the membership for 2008-09. Ten of those new members are public institutions, also a record number.</p>

<ol>
<li>Brown University</li>
<li>Canisius College</li>
<li>Carroll College</li>
<li>Chapman University</li>
<li>Culver-Stockton College</li>
<li>Curry College</li>
<li>Erskine College</li>
<li>Hamline University</li>
<li>Hood College

<ol>
<li>Illinois College</li>
<li>Immaculata University</li>
<li>Lasell College</li>
<li>Lees-McRae College</li>
<li>Loyola Marymount University</li>
<li>Lycoming College</li>
<li>Lynn University</li>
<li>Russell Sage College</li>
<li>Sage College of Albany</li>
<li>St. John Fisher College</li>
<li>Stony Brook University*</li>
<li>SUNY College at Oneonta*</li>
<li>SUNY Cortland*</li>
<li>SUNY Fredonia*</li>
<li>SUNY New Paltz*</li>
<li>SUNY Oswego*</li>
<li>University at Buffalo (SUNY)</li>
<li>University of Chicago</li>
<li>University of Massachusetts Boston
</li>
<li>University of Maine at Machias*</li>
<li>University of New England</li>
<li>University of Notre Dame</li>
<li>University of Virginia*</li>
<li>Wentworth Institute of Technology</li>
</ol></li>
</ol>

<ul>
<li>public institution</li>
</ul>

<p>The WSJ article is terrible and misleading IMO. The girl who got into Wellesley and not other schools because of her essay also turns out to be a legacy! They also don't mention that Cornell where the boy rejected by Dartmouth got in becaused he changed spelling mistakes may have gotten in because Cornell is easier to get into. Some more bad advice to mislead kids!</p>

<p>^^^^ agreed wholeheartedly.</p>

<p>???? You think the WSJ was giving bad advice to mislead kids when it said to make sure that they didn't have a lot of spelling errors? That their essays weren't forced, and sounded like them?</p>

<p>Cornell RD has a lower acceptance rate than Dartmouth ED, by the way. Someone applying ED to Dartmouth last year had about a 1-in-3 chance of being admitted either ED or RD. Cornell accepted fewer than 1 in 5 RD applicants. Cornell's RD acceptance rate was about 18% (not counting ED), and Dartmouth's overall rate was about 13% (counting ED, since the kid in the article applied ED); I wouldn't rely on that difference to draw a lot of conclusions. Fixing the spelling errors makes sense to me.</p>

<p>The University of Chicago -- 630 fewer EA applications (15%) (and this despite joining the Common App).</p>

<p>Early</a> applications to the College decrease by 15*percent - The Chicago Maroon</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%
Pomona - Up 20%
Northwestern - Up 15 %
University of Richmond - Up 14%
Colby - Up 13%
Haverford - Up 13%
Dartmouth - Up 12.5%
Middlebury - Up 12%
Cornell – Up 9% (probably ED, but may be more)
Barnard – Up 8% (probably ED, but may be more)
Hamilton - Up 8%
Bowdoin - Up 7.9%
Union College - Up 7%
Amherst – Up 5% (probably ED, but may be more)
Occidental – Up 3.5%
NYU - Up 2.3%
Dickinson – flat
Johns Hopkins - <0.6>
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%
U Of Chicago EA - <15%></p>

<p>If a college has a marked decrease in ED applicants (example 300 instead 500 applicants) and they typically accept 40% of pool, do you think they still accept the same percentage or would the odds be better for the applicant?</p>

<p>I would assume that the odds would be better for the applicant, especially if you can see that 40% consistent over a number of application years......just curious; what school is this?
(Bucknell? if yes, I would still say it's to the advantage of the applicant, as long as the stats are there....)</p>