Looks like Grinnell Admissions is Going to be a whole lot tougher

Colleges and Universities A-Z Grinnell College
1

<p>applications increase by 52% at Grinnell, this college is not a secret anymore</p>

<p>New York Times January 23, 2012
ADMISSIONS</a> BUZZ - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com</p>

<p>Application Tally : 2012
Total Apps 2012 Total Apps 2011 Change (raw number) Change as Pct </p>

<p>Amherst College (MA) 8,316 8,461 -145 -1.71%</p>

<p>Babson College (MA) 5,505 5,079 426 8.39%</p>

<p>Barnard College (NY) 5,376 5,153 223 4.33%</p>

<p>Binghamton University (NY) 28,100 28,101 -1 0.00%</p>

<p>Boston University (MA) 43,842 41,734 2108 5.05%</p>

<p>Bowdoin College (ME) 6,686 6,554 132 2.01%</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon (PA) 17,374 16,525 849 5.14%</p>

<p>Claremont McKenna College (CA) 5,041 4,481 560 12.50%</p>

<p>Colgate University (NY) 7,715 7,708 7 0.09%</p>

<p>College of the Holy Cross (MA) 7,180 7,353 -173 -2.35%</p>

<p>College of William & Mary (VA) 13,400 12,825 575 4.48%</p>

<p>Columbia University (NY) 31,818 34,929 -3111 -8.91%</p>

<p>Dartmouth College (NH) 23,052 22,385 667 2.98%</p>

<p>Dickinson College (PA) 4,547 4,645 -98 -2.11%</p>

<p>Duke University (NC) 31,545 29,724 1,821 6.13%</p>

<p>Elon University, (NC) 10,004 9,071 933 10.29%</p>

<p>Emerson College (MA) 7,070 7,240 -170 -2.35%</p>

<p>Fordham University (NY) 28,963 26,651 2312 8.68%</p>

<p>Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (MA) 881 868 13 1.50%</p>

<p>Georgia Tech (GA) 14,500 14,200 300 2.11%</p>

<p>Grinnell College (IA) 4,515 2,969 1546 52.07%</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd (CA) 3,529 3,144 385 12.25%</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins University (MD) 19,400 19,201 199 1.04%</p>

<p>Lafayette College (PA) 6,537 5,716 821 14.36%</p>

<p>Lehigh University (PA) 11,366 11,431 -65 -0.57%</p>

<p>Miami University (OH) 18,623 16,476 2147 13.03%</p>

<p>Middlebury College (VT) 8,922 8,533 389 4.56%</p>

<p>Northwestern (IL) 32,016 30,926 1090 3.52%</p>

<p>Penn State University (PA) 39,311 37,901 1410 3.72%</p>

<p>Pomona College (CA) 7,325 7,207 118 1.64%</p>

<p>Pitzer College (CA) 4,218 3,743 475 12.69%</p>

<p>Smith College (MA) 2,779 2,691 88 3.27%</p>

<p>Stanford University (CA) 36,744 34,348 2396 6.98%</p>

<p>Trinity College (CT) 7,094 6,967 127 1.82%</p>

<p>Tufts University (MA) 16,364 17,130 -766 -4.47%</p>

<p>University of California, Berkeley (CA) 61,661 52,920 8741 16.52%</p>

<p>University of Chicago (IL) 25,271 21,762 3509 16.12%</p>

<p>University of Connecticut (CT) 27,721 25,170 2551 10.14%</p>

<p>University of Delaware (DE) 24,675 22,473 2202 9.80%</p>

<p>University of Notre Dame (IN) 17,000 16,548 452 2.73%</p>

<p>University of Pennsylvania (PA) 31,127 31,663 -536 -1.69%</p>

<p>University of Richmond (VA) 10,114 9,431 683 7.24%</p>

<p>University of Rochester (NY) 14,655 13,311 1344 10.10%</p>

<p>U. of Virginia (VA) 28,200 23,971 4229 17.64%</p>

<p>Wake Forest University (NC) 11,131 9,869 1262 12.79%</p>

<p>Wesleyan University (CT) 10,437 9,986 451 4.52%</p>

<p>Williams College, (MA) 7,038 7,028 10 0.14%</p>

<p>Yale University (CT) 28,662 27,283 1379 5.05%</p>

2

<p>Wow. Well, people are finally acknowledging its excellence, I guess. What do you think led to this?</p>

3

<p>^The new college president has been trying to use a whole slew of new strategies to market Grinnell. It looks like they’re working.</p>

4

<p>^ like actually having a web site that one can navigate and find information? :-)</p>

<p>D was one of those heavily marketed kids who was turned off by the old web site and gave school another look late - applied RD - we’ll see how it goes.</p>

5

<p>I really dislike that NYT blog. Grinnell had by far the highest increase in applications and the reporter doesn’t even look into the reason why??</p>

<p>My son applied RD as well. This makes me think his odds might have just gone down.</p>

6

<p>In our school paper this week they said that the percent accepted will be under 30 percent this year.</p>

7

<p>Increase in number of applicants does not necessarily mean that the quality of applicants has increase! So, I don’t think people with good stats need to worry at all. Who knows the average SAT/ACT of accepted students might be same as that of last year?</p>

8

<p>Grinnell has always been very much a self-selecting college. My guess is that it won’t be that much more difficult to get in for those who had long term plans of applying. This will just help with US News and World Report I guess.</p>

9

<p>It is true about quality of applicants. Where are the recruiters focusing? Last year they did not seem to go to many schools. Are they travelling to more high schools all around or are they targeting high schools for a specific profile of student? Or is the travel the same as last year and they have more applicants for other reasons?</p>

10

<p>^I believe the recruiters are travelling to the same schools but spent a lot more time on follow-ups when students showed interest. Some new schools may have been covered by a (new?) program that asks students to go back to their home school and talk about their experiences at Grinnell. IIRC, apps to Grinnell actually went down last year, as well, which may have contributed to the 52% increase this year.</p>

<p>I can’t find the S&B article right now, but it should be out there somewhere. It gave a pretty good summary of what contributed to the change.</p>

11

<p>Is this increase in applications do to an enormous increase of Chinese foreign students’ applications?</p>

12

<p>apparently the increases were across the board, with applications up from all regions of the US.</p>

13

<p>Where are you getting your info from @SDonCC?</p>

14

<p>^College newspaper article said that every region of the U.S. showed at least a 20% increase and that the increase wasn’t disproportionately from internationals.</p>

15

<p>So so happy to see this. I believe Grinnell is no longer a hidden gem. It truly rivals other LAC’s like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona, Claremont McKenna and Carleton. My son attends Grinnell and my daughter just got accepted into the class of 2016. It doesn’t shock me that their applicant pool has gone up this much. They are one of the finest liberal arts colleges that actually offer excellent merit aid for qualified applicants and of course they have incredible need best aid(most of the top 20 LAC’s don’t have merit aid or only offer very small scholarships if they do)! Furthermore their new president is highly regarded and doing a great job.</p>

16

<p>^^ just got accepted ED?</p>

17

<p>tbh I think this just ruined my afternoon. I can’t see anything good coming out of this…comfort food time…:slight_smile: I’ve been thinking so much about Grinnell lately…I want to get in so bad…but now my chances are slimmer than ever. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be…<em>sigh.</em></p>

18

<p>Visited a number of Midwest LACs with son last week, certainly heard about this at Grinnell. But at other, comparable schools (Macalester, Carleton) as well, though not to the same degree. I do wonder how “committed” some of these applicants are. May be a whole lot of coastal “kids” (while this may sound pejorative, it’s not meant to be, my kid and I live on a coast) who have not visited, who would never choose Grinnell over similarly ranked or higher ranked school in say the Northeast. It may be that Grinnell has gotten itself a bit more on the map of the elite applicant pool, and with the Common App it’s pretty easy to throw in an application. But I concur with some of the comments above, I’m not sure this results in any/much difference in the kids who end up going there. It may be that the applicant pool in some sense is just less self-selecting, kids who would never dream of leaving the East coast as long as they get in to a top LAC in the Northeast are throwing in an app just in case, as opposed to mostly applications from kids who really want to go there. The only thing this may do for (or maybe to) Grinnell is make it more difficult to get the yield right. None of this is an argument that Grinnell does not deserve to have this kind of jump, it is a fantastic school. But the same reason that a school of its quality has had a 50% acceptance rate over the years–location–is still there. I can’t beleive that something has happened to all of the sudden make going to school in rural, central Iowa attractive to a whole lot of kids that it was not attractive to last year.</p>

19

<p>I also think that misinformed kids are using the Midwestern LACs as their safeties. With a huge increase in apps like this year, I hope people will understand that Grinnell is not a safety. Anyone know what the acceptance rate is down to? I know it was above 40% when ds applied two years ago but am curious what it is now.</p>

20

<p>When we were there last week, they said 30%. That is down from 50% last year. And, I agree with you, my probably not very well stated point above was that I think Grinnell may have gotten on to a bunch of kids’ lists as a safety, but an awful lot of those kids will choose to attend an East Coast LAC of higher, similar or even lower rank than commit to 4 years in Iowa. Because this is new for Grinnell, as I say above yield could be a very interesting project for them this year.</p>