<p>Hello all, I am gathering information regarding the increase or decrease of Early Decision application percentages in the top universities in the United States for the Class of 2014.</p>
<p>Here's what I have so far:</p>
<p>Dartmouth: +3%
Duke: +32%</p>
<p>Please feel free to add on!! This will hopefully become a very comprehensive list as more data starts coming in.</p>
<p>If only I knew WUStL’s…</p>
<p>wow Duke! I wonder why applications went up so much. how do you find this data? i wanna know cornell’s!!</p>
<p>The performance of football teams counts and Duke’s football team is having its best year in a decade.</p>
<p>USC has become a borderline top 25 school from football and Florida has probably had the greatest increase in student quals of any public university recently.</p>
<p>From gridiron to greatness!!</p>
<p>NyOrker, the data is usually reported in the college’s daily paper. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t give football too much credit with regard to Duke. I think the drop in the RD rate to 16-17% last year pushed a number of people to ED where a 1/3 (though maybe now 1/4) of applicants get in.</p>
<p>Duke: +33%
George Washington: +24%
William and Mary: +13%
Bowdoin: +5%
NYU: +5%
Dartmouth: +3%
Tufts: No significant change
Georgetown: No significant change
Davidson: -4%
Yale: -5.2%</p>
<p><a href=“http://flathatnews.com/content/72212[/url]”>http://flathatnews.com/content/72212</a>
<a href=“http://nyunews.com/news/2009/nov/18/admission/[/url]”>http://nyunews.com/news/2009/nov/18/admission/</a>
<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/11/18/24471/[/url]”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/11/18/24471/</a>
<a href=“http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2009-11-20§ion=1&id=1[/url]”>http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2009-11-20§ion=1&id=1</a>
<a href=“http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2009/11/16/News/Record.Number.Apply.Early.Decision-3833108.shtml[/url]”>http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2009/11/16/News/Record.Number.Apply.Early.Decision-3833108.shtml</a>
<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2009/11/04/early-decision-applications-way-up-at-duke.html[/url]”>http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2009/11/04/early-decision-applications-way-up-at-duke.html</a>
<a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2009/11/03/news/ednumbers/[/url]”>http://thedartmouth.com/2009/11/03/news/ednumbers/</a></p>
<p>I’m surprised that ANY schools are up in this economy. I would’ve expected declines like what Yale has experienced and perhaps as much as down 10-20% for most schools. </p>
<p>I can maybe understand a place like Dartmouth being up slightly, but GW’s increase is very unexpected as I think that they have the highest cost of any college in the USA. </p>
<p>And why does W&M have ED, but U Virginia does not?</p>
<p>A few years ago, when Harvard got rid of its Early Decision program, several other schools made the decision to end ED as well, including Princeton and University of Virginia. The reasoning was that ED generally gave an admissions advantage to applicants, yet lower income students were not applying ED in sufficient numbers, either because of financial concerns, because they simply weren’t ready to apply by the early dates or because they lacked college counseling. </p>
<p>Here was the quote from the University of Virginia paper at the time:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I believe that individual public colleges in a state are able to make their own decisions about whether to offer rolling admissions, ED or EA, so I guess W & M decided to stay with the system that had worked for them in the past.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yale does not belong on this list. It offers (SC)EA, not ED.</p>
<p>In terms of selectivity, Yale SCEA (~15% admit rate) is in an entirely different universe than, say, Duke ED (~35% admit rate).</p>
<p>Does anyone know columbia’s?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>With HYPS acceptance rates in the single digits, more and more kids realize they have no realistic shot at their dream schools. </p>
<p>So they settle by applying ED to increase their chances at backup schools like Duke.</p>
<p>Not everyone wants to compete against the best.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So why the particularly huge increase this year?</p>
<p>You’re explanation doesn’t make sense because this isn’t the first time that kids have realized that.</p>
<p>^ Recently, Duke has spread the word to potential applicants (via informational sessions and such) that it is looking for “less than perfect” students.</p>
<p>This is strictly a move to drive up applications because Duke students have never, ever been “perfect”…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Early-Decision</a> Applications Way Up at Duke - The Paper Trail (usnews.com)](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2009/11/04/early-decision-applications-way-up-at-duke.html]Early-Decision”>http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2009/11/04/early-decision-applications-way-up-at-duke.html)</p>
<p>^ What do you expect Guttentag to say???</p>
<p>We want as many kids to apply as possible so that we could appear as selective as Brown, Columbia, and Dartmouth…</p>
<p>Or, </p>
<p>Man, we have to do something because it’s so embarrassing that our admit and yield rates are almost identical to those of Vanderbilt, ewww…</p>
<p>Certainly we need to see the results of a lot more schools before taking much from this. It’s quite possible that nothing much can be learned from a single data point (year). Certainly a 32 percent increase is a huge increase and one I doubt has much to do with anything said in information sessions.</p>
<p>how does nyu’s ED increase with terrible financial aid?</p>
<p>Rice +26% [Pool</a> of prospects expands - News](<a href=“http://media.www.ricethresher.org/media/storage/paper1290/news/2009/11/20/News/Pool-Of.Prospects.Expands-3837874.shtml]Pool”>http://media.www.ricethresher.org/media/storage/paper1290/news/2009/11/20/News/Pool-Of.Prospects.Expands-3837874.shtml)</p>
<p>I am guessing GWU is seeing a bounce from the presidential elections. So many kids were involved in the campaign and became interested in politics. Seeing the GW students celebrating outside the White House or at their Inaugural Ball could have helped. Wonder if Georgetown saw a bump as well in their EA?</p>
<p>Duke is a really great school so I’m not that surprise to know there was a increase in ED applications, just to know that it increased over 30% is surprising as compared to other schools where the increase rate did not make double digits or didn’t increase at all.</p>