<p>Just wondering if anyone has seen statistics for ED this year - is the number of apps up or down? It is typically around 420. Anyone have any inside info?</p>
<p>[Some</a> Early Returns on Early Admission - NYTimes.com](<a href=“Some Early Returns on Early Admission - The New York Times”>Some Early Returns on Early Admission - The New York Times)</p>
<p>hi y’all…guess we should have checked this for today’s update…</p>
<p>Elon is in the chart…</p>
<p>down for ED</p>
<p>pretty much sideways for EA</p>
<p>So - ED went down from 408 applications last year to 348 this year - a drop of 60 applicants which is a 14.70% drop. What do we think about this? Is it statistically insignificant? Or does anyone have a theory as to why the drop? Also dropped about 4% in EA apps. I’m not terribly alarmed - really - it makes me feel better about S2’s chances next year perhaps - but curious if anyone has any theories as to why the decline?</p>
<p>I would guess as far as ED-the economy and folks wanting to compare financial aid</p>
<p>But ED apps are up at many other more expensive schools? So, I have trouble accepting the economy as the reason. I have heard that an influx of international students is driving up the ED numbers at more elite schools - maybe Chinese students have not heard of Elon!</p>
<p>hmmm… that’s interesting. I don’t know of any negative publicity about Elon (and I follow them pretty closely in the news), so not sure why their early apps would drop.</p>
<p>interesting note: most of the LAC’s on that list have not shown the astronomic increases of the research universities…although none either show a decrease like this one…</p>
<p>given that it is updated almost twice a day, I would imagine that as more and more schools are added there will be some outliers…</p>
<p>curious to see more below the top 20…both LACS and universities…</p>
<p>Just thinking… Elon has publicly said that their goal for this year is to increase their diversity. Pres Lambert has said he does not want Elon to be a “gated community.” If their outreach (mailings etc) was targeted slightly differently this year, perhaps they didn’t reach as many of their traditional ED students. ED students are overwhelmingly full-pay, especially at Elon ( Elon’s ED agreement makes no mention of any exceptions for FA to the “binding” nature of the ED commitment).</p>
<p>Interesting, economy was real bad last year too!</p>
<p>So, the Times today is still reporting a drop in Elon’s ED (-14.70%) and EA applications (-3.67%). No place else comes close. Well, except Wake Forest, showing a drop of -11.09%</p>
<p>Is it something about North Carolina we don’t know? (I might have understood if it was South Carolina with all the Governor and other election shenanigans, but why NC?)</p>
<p>OK - here’s one theory I have - although you may find it a little far-fetched. We have done two rounds of info sessions with Elon - one a few years ago with S1 and one now with S2. When we visited Elon with S1 - it was the best info session ever. I just loved the film they showed at the beginning. It made me feel an emotional connection to the school. We just attended an info session with S2 in October - and while the info session was ok - it was nothing special. It was just a person standing up in front of the room giving info and 2 students spoke and answered some questions. It was kind of ho-hum. I did not feel the same sense of excitement that I did at the first info session. And then we did the tour - which was ok - nothing exciting. So, I would say that the first visit with S1 was far superior than the first visit with S2. We still really like the school and know enough about it that the quality of the info session was not that important to us - but to others who are visiting many schools - maybe the newly revised info session is just not as compelling.</p>
<p>As far as Wake Forest goes - their ED deadline is 1/1 - so there is a lot of time yet - students procrastinate - I’m not sure about how much of a drop that one will be yet - if any.</p>
<p>Interesting, Rockvillemom - they’re not showing that video any more? I thought it was amazing… it made me cry. Easily the best admissions video I saw in the more than a dozen I’ve sat through. </p>
<p>I had read in the Pendulum (Elon newspaper, you can see it online at their website) that they were changing their approach a bit and had told the tour guides to emphasize personal experiences or something like that. I could be wrong on the exact change they made, the point is they were going for something different than they had in the past. Perhaps if this year’s entire application pool dips this much they’ll return to their old methods of marketing/admissions.</p>
<p>See - that’s exactly what I meant - so I’m not crazy. I just loved that video! And maybe it resonates more with the mothers - but we are influential in the process. </p>
<p>Interesting comment about the tour guides emphasizing personal experiences - I actually don’t care for that. I don’t really want to hear about one student’s story - I want a more general approach. Our tour guide was a female student - with a completely different major and activities than my son’s interests - so hearing about her personal experience - did not interest me in the least. I think it’s kind of like selling a house - the realtor tells you to remove your personal items and photos so that the prospective buyer can picture themselves living there. I felt that our tour guide talked too much about herself - that’s actually my top tour pet peeve.</p>
<p>Perhaps you are right and they will revamp their info session/tour after this season.</p>
<p>mhc48 - Davidson was up nearly 40% in ED apps - so I don’t think it is a NC issue! I think it may be just that some schools are hot some years and not others. Elon and Furman are two schools that many people equate - many visit and apply to both - they are comparable in many ways. Furman had a huge jump in ED apps - why would that be? Did Furman do something this year that lured students from Elon ED to Furman ED? I have no idea of this - just speculating.</p>
<p>Hmmm…I don’t remember anything about the tour guide we had at Elon. All I remember is how impressed we were with the campus, facilities. But at other schools I did like students who related positive experiences.(ie- positive relationships with professors, good internship or travel experiences, fun on campus et cetera…) The tour guide at our state flagship Rutgers was one of the best we ever had (second to Pittsburgh) but in the end those were not the types of schools my son was interested in attending.</p>
<p>Also at my sons school last year 10 applied and only 4 were accepted. So maybe less students applied because of the perceived selectivity???</p>
<p>scoutmom - interesting point - holds true at our hs as well. In 2009, 14 applied and 7 were accepted - a 50% acceptance rate. In 2010, 20 applied and only 8 were accepted - dropping the acceptance rate to 40%. So, I guess that could be a factor. But, think about the Ivy League and other very selective schools - Duke, Stanford, etc., - their acceptances rates drop every year and that certainly has not discouraged applicants. I don’t know - I’m sure the Elon admissions people will have their own theories - be interesting to find out what they think is going on.</p>
<p>I got in at 5:00 today! The dean of admissions called my cellphone and congratulated me on my acceptance for early decision!</p>
<p>On a somewhat strange note - last year some people claimed they had been called early from a number of schools and as it turned out they had not been called and it was a hoax. Good to remember that this public forum… Good Luck Everyone…</p>
<p>Your theory is plausable I suppose RVM, but I’ve sat through a number of dreary or at least unrecognizably interchangeable indifferent movies, talks and college tours and didn’t think they changed anyone’s mind about a school if they wanted to go there. (Come to think of it, you sat through it and still would like to send your son there). For ED, I think most people have already decided or at least narrowed it down a lot before the tour.</p>
<p>I have to agree with you on the other point though, there is nothing so awkward unhelpful boring as a tour guide who relates everything minutely to his or her life and friends. As if you were there primarily to see a live reality show and studio tour about them. We had one like that and I so much wanted to stop by the admissions office and tell them for God’s sakes, get her off doing the tours.</p>