<p>Are there any schools that had a substantial increase in applicant pools for early decision? A friend of mine told me that university of Pennsylvania had a 30% percent increase his year.. I'm applying to Carnegie Mellon ed so I wanted to know if cmu had a large increase in applications. Thanks!</p>
<p>Yeah there are!</p>
<p>[Early-Decision</a> Applications Surge at Vanderbilt, George Washington and Dartmouth - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/ed/]Early-Decision”>Early-Decision Applications Surge at Vanderbilt, George Washington and Dartmouth - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Thanks for the link! Is there anything for Carnegie Mellon?</p>
<p>They might update soon, but as of now no.</p>
<p>I think Northwestern saw an increase too</p>
<p>They’ve yet to do an in-depth analysis on whether these huge applicant increases are leading to a decrease in selectivity (different than % admitted). I wonder if they’re getting more numbers based, more “soft factor” (essays, ECs) based, or if the upper crust of the applicant pool isn’t changing in size and it’s just those with little chance increasing the numbers.</p>
<p>Well I know that schools like Fordham and Northeastern are giving out more free applications to early actioners, so that’s definitely an incentive for more people to apply - even if they’re not as qualified.</p>