Has Wake seen a drastic increase in ED applications?

<p>I was just reading an article that discussed the dramatic increase in ED/EA applications at top schools in the US. Notre Dame saw a 30% increase, Georgetown 50%, etc...
I was curious as to whether anyone has heard about Wake's ED numbers. It is a binding plan, but it seems as though more and more kids are willing to accept that agreement. Kind of interesting to see how things have changed these past few years, with more and more kids becoming competitive in the applicant pools. It seems as though many seemingly qualified applicants on this board have been deferred from ED this year. Not exactly a good way to evaluate things because of the sample space, I know, but it seemed interesting, especially how Wake's admission numbers have "jumped" over the years, from 47%-39-43, etc....</p>

<p>Is Wake quickly moving from "more selective" to "most selective" school, or is there just an unusually large # or applicants this year? What are your thoughts?</p>

<p>I believe it would be reasonable to say that WFU is "most selective" altho these are pretty subjective labels. </p>

<p>Virtually every place is experiencing the temporary "blip" upward in apps ... it's demographics, economics, competitiveness among institutions (our student has received no fewer than 23 "free" app offers, some from competitive schools (I'm convinced that at least for several, this is a strategy to shift their posture to more selective by generating more apps that are ultimately rejected ... or perhaps attempting to "catch" some students that would otherwise not even apply. Whatever, it's sorta interesting to try and figure it out.)</p>

<p>We called into the admissions office in September to ask a general application question, and the admissions person stated that she personally had seen an increase in ED applicants. She encouraged my daughter to send in her application as soon as she had it ready. I know that this is not hard data, and just one persons experience, but I am sure they are up. Thankfully it all worked out and shewas admitted for the fall of '08.</p>

<p>I wouldn't be surprised if WFU saw a significant increase in ED applications this year due to last year's success in football. That might have drawn more people to take a closer look at Wake because we're pretty unique and are trying to prove that it's possible to have both top-notch academics and athletics.</p>

<p>Whistle Pig,</p>

<p>Do you mind if I ask which competitive schools offered the free application to your son or daughter? </p>

<p>It sounds like this was the first year that Wake Forest sent out an email with a link to a specific application (Direct Connection?)--but I take it that students still had to pay the regular $50 application fee.</p>

<p>23 free applications?! Wow!</p>

<p>I was told this by a number of the staff at Wake who I spoke to on the phone.</p>