<p>Well Penn and Princeton are wedded to each other, at least in the fickle mind of admissions trends. Every Ivy has had a spectacular increase in applications (and subsequent decrease in acceptance rate) for the class of 2013, save for Penn and Princeton.</p>
<p>What gives?</p>
<p>I have no shortage of theories why Penn went failboat this year, but I'm stumped on Princeton</p>
<p>(btw you can have Amy Gutmann back)</p>
<p>I think it might be because Princeton is trying to increase the size of the freshman class compared to last year.</p>
<p>It’s just a guess though.</p>
<p>It is because our administration sucks. Our financial aid is not up to par, grade deflation makes no one want to come here, and the administration insists on demonizing the eating clubs and all the other traditions that Princetonians hold dear. Fire Rapeleye/Malkiel.</p>
<p>Yea we’re trying to increase the class size but also like the university is implementing two policies which are kind of in conflict with each other - meritocracy and grade deflation. So basically we’re taking smarter kids and offering them lower grades, which means less of these kids will be willing to take the bait, causing us to have to take more kids.</p>
<p>I am writing this to be constructive, so I would appreciate it if you people would think before responding.</p>
<p>I believe that the P administration is taking the right steps in shifting its focus, particularly with admissions, in order to compete with its brethren. This means finding more room for the next Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Steve Chen (YouTube) or Sergey Brin (Google) and then challenging them in the Princeton classroom. This means digging deeper to find this century’s Bill Hewlett, Dave Packard, Bill Gates or Larry Ellison and then giving them the means to prosper and reshape our society. [Note: I’m intentionally naming only science and engineering entrepreneurs]</p>
<p>Many of these new admittees are not likely to be typical Princeton students of the past, and even less likely to be legacy students or recruited athletes. A large number (gasp!) are likely to have immigrant parents, and want to study science and engineering, so they’ve already been exposed to the Bell Curve in grading (the horrors!).</p>
<p>This all takes time. In many cases, you may have to wait 5 or even 10 years for these graduates (or dropouts) to make it big after leaving Princeton. Seriously, I think we’ll know in a few years whether or not this plan is a success or failure. But not in the pages of the US News & World Report college rankings, but in the marketplace itself.</p>
<p>In a few years, I’m hoping to hear that a bunch of really smart Princeton grads have IPOed a company that they started in their dorm rooms. Thanks for listening.</p>
<p>I agree with Ernie on some points; I’m not quite sure if the body of students applying to Princeton has significant knowledge of the ‘Rapeleye/Malkiel vs. Eating Clubs’ spat on campus, but I do think grade deflation is a big concern for grade-conscious students applying. But yeah, I’m not a big fan of the current administration either. (Public Safety “room party” patrols? Talk of Whitman partially annexing Spellman? Seriously?)</p>
<p>I wonder if there’s any Ivy where the students like what the administration is up to these days…</p>
<p>I mean I have no specific complaints about Amy Gutmann, (save for her abysmal public speaking skills and the slight sense that idyllic Princeton did not adequately prepare her for the behemoth that is occasionally at war with itself that is Penn). But I wish she’d be more aggressive, Judith Rodin style.</p>
<p>I heard about the war on eating clubs, but what else are they doing?</p>
<p>can someone tell me how to pronounce Ms. Rapeleye’s name correctly? Thank you.</p>
<p>[Op</a> Art: Ghosts of theses past - The Daily Princetonian](<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/04/02/23242/]Op”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/04/02/23242/)</p>
<p>@basketballbabe: “Wrap-ly”</p>
<p>@ilovebagels: Grade deflation (seriously, there’s no good reason for this and they’re just shooting us all in the foot b/c grad schools/recruiters don’t know about this/give a ****… if it was a policy worth anything other colleges would follow suit), taking nice dorms and giving them to upperclassmen so they’ll have an incentive not to join eating clubs, trying to get students to register parties so that we can get checked on for underage drinking, looking for more students who will fight current campus culture instead of the “Princeton Type”, etc etc.</p>
<p>Well that’s a downer. How much longer til Tilghman gets deposed?</p>
<p>PU had a small increase in applicants (2.8%) and about a 4% increase in openings. Meanwhile, many schools had much larger increases in apps (Harvard-6%; MIT-17%; Duke -17%; Brown - 21%), which are out of proportion to the increase in college-age kids. The schools listed above do NOT have better financial aid packages than PU, except for Harvard, so the explanation for the big increase in apps at these schools likely lies elsewhere. </p>
<p>I read somewhere that many schools such as Harvard had tremendous marketing campaigns which were likely to increase the quantity of applicants, but probably not the quality or the SES. Maybe PU doesn’t want to market where more financial aid will be needed. Just a theory.</p>
<p>[Comments</a> on “Admission rate rises to 9.79 percent for Class of 2013” - The Daily Princetonian](<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/04/01/23213/comments/?p=1]Comments”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/04/01/23213/comments/?p=1)</p>
<p>Read the comments on the article. I was shocked.</p>
<p>Wow. That is an INSANE comment thread. And I thought the Penn kids were PO’d…</p>
<p>I have actually never met anybody on campus that has expressed such a dislike for Princeton. Everybody I know loves the school, and perhaps bemoans the amount of work and studying we have to do. But we’re all secretly nerds, and we expected that we were coming into a very intense environment. It’s more intense than you’d think, though you can get away with taking easier classes if that’s what you want.</p>
<p>Yeah… I think it is most likely exaggerated by a few people. But there is clearly at least some people with very strong feelings against the current administration and their grade deflation policies.</p>
<p>A bunch of them are claiming that they are going to organize a large protest against the school, and try to convince anyone they can not to go to Princeton. They reason that they can hit 'em where it hurts by chopping their yield in half. “Maybe then they’ll listen!”</p>
<p>Report back if any such protests or smear campaigns happen.</p>
<p>Well Idk about a big protest… our reputation for apathy is pretty well-known.</p>