<p>Here's a list of the top app increases from 2007 to 2009 (last three classes). Its interesting to note that many of the Ivies have had significant increases (Columbia has yet to publish 2009 data), becoming potentially much more competitive than even a few years ago. Also, Penn seems to have stagnated for some reason (financial crisis?). Here's the list in order of largest increase. </p>
<p>Hm, interesting. I didn't apply to any Ivies, but I always said that if I did, I would only apply to Princeton and/or Penn - and those are on the bottom of the list.</p>
<p>Yale seems to have benefited most from Harvard and Princeton abandoning ED.</p>
<p>That said, percentages might be a bit misleading, as there are only a finite number of smart kids who have the interest in attending such a school. Raw numbers might be more telling.</p>
<p>Besides, the number of students applying to any given school tells you nothing about the quality of the students nor the undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>^^ Agreed. Applicant pool doesn't indicate quality... just exposure, draw, etc.</p>
<p>Also, there may be a finego-inflated site number of smart kids interested in Ivies, but there's an unending number of ego-inflated pseudo-smart kids who think they have a shot at Ivies, coupled with "why the hell not" applicants who toss an application at one of the HYP with no expectations of acceptance.</p>
<p>
[quote]
but there's an unending number of ego-inflated pseudo-smart kids who think they have a shot at Ivies
[/quote]
...also known as CC posters. </p>
<p>I'd be interested in seeing what effect international students have had on the application growths. I know Yale is quite popular with international applicants, for example, because it accepts A-levels in lieu of SAT subject tests.</p>
<p>You guys are talking about the application process to the Ivies as if it were taking place on Mars. Real people roll into the admissions office every morning and make these decisions. Some staff even stay in student housing. Many are former students. They know who rocks at their school and why. They begin with that knowledge when they start reading the applications. They find distinctive combinations of qualities that mark each year's applicants. The weird part of being an applicant is that you have had to invent your own metric of attainment and have it turn out to be the 'right' one for that year for the Ivies, without knowing that that was what you were doing.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Maybe these applicants are hedging their chances by applying to the "top" and "bottom" of the Ivy league.
[/quote]
The students are gunning for either the top research and professional schools (HY) or the top undergraduate schools (DB). Otherwise, they'll go to UCB. :)</p>
<p>Slipper, from where are you getting your numbers?
Here are the percentages from the US Dept of Education IPEDS website (the "official" numbers) for the period 2006-2008:</p>
<p>Princeton University 22%
Harvard University 21%
Cornell University 18%
Brown University 13%
University of Pennsylvania 12%
Columbia University in the City of New York 8%
Dartmouth College 2%
Yale University -1%</p>
<p>Here is the percent change for the 7-year period 2001-2008 from IPEDS:</p>
<p>Cornell University 100%
Princeton University 57%
Yale University 50%
Harvard University 45%
Dartmouth College 39%
Columbia University in the City of New York 32%
Brown University 24%
University of Pennsylvania 20%</p>
<p>Here is the 3-year change 2006-2008 in the number of applications:</p>
<p>Cornell University 4975
Harvard University 4735
Princeton University 3806
University of Pennsylvania 2452
Brown University 2317
Columbia University in the City of New York 1492
Dartmouth College 238
Yale University -128</p>
<p>Here is the 7-year change 2001-2008 in the number of application:</p>
<p>Cornell University 16535
Harvard University 8448
Princeton University 7716
Yale University 6436
Columbia University in the City of New York 5181
Brown University 4027
Dartmouth College 3988
University of Pennsylvania 3782</p>
<p>Brown University number of applicants as reported by US News in 2002 (so the 2000-2001 year):
16,806</p>
<p>Applicants this year:
25k</p>
<p>That puts the change over that seven year span at almost double what you listed.</p>
<p>We had a 21% increase just this last year, making 24% over 7 years a bit ridiculous since we haven't had a drop in overall applications any year in that span as far as I know. In fact, your 7-year total applicant change for Brown was exceeded just from 2008-09 to 2009-10.</p>
<p>Official number of applications reported to US Department of Education by the school:</p>
<p>2001, 2006, 2008</p>
<p>Cornell University 16538 28098 33073
Harvard University 18932 22645 27380
Princeton University 13654 17564 21370
Yale University 12887 19451 19323
Columbia University in the City of New York 16162* 19851 21343
Brown University 16606 18316 20633
Dartmouth College 10188 13938 14176
University of Pennsylvania 19153 20483 22935</p>
<p>*Columbia didn't report in 2001 so I substituted their 2002 number.</p>
<p>Fact is, your numbers and slippers numbers are pure BS because admissions offices are not releasing application data yet. They are still processing applications, in fact.</p>
<p>Your Ipeds numbers are always WAY off collegehelp, your "2008" numbers are actually for "2007". Numbers are all released, you don't need the "totally late, I mean official" Ipeds numbers.</p>
<p>Collegehelp your data is essentially for 2005-2007 (leave it to the US govt to be over a year late processing their data and then lie about what year its from). Good data, but two years old. During the last two years the schools with big app increases changed significantly.</p>
<p>
[quote]
leave it to the US govt to be over a year late processing their data and then lie about what year its from
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Hey now. The data collection efforts of the U.S. government are the very best the world has to offer. And it regularly trumps any data I've worked with from other countries or the private sector.</p>
<p>And nobody is lying about the year it is from, either. The 2008 IPEDS reports the number of applications received in the previous admissions cycle, or from 2007, as reported on the Common Data Set. Numbers have been known to change a fair amount between when the student rags first pick it up and the numbers are finalized.</p>