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Middleburys applications as of Jan. 1 were down about 10 percent from the previous year, said Bob Clagett, dean of admissions, although early-decision applications were up. He cautioned that an annual comparison could be misleading because of another variable. Having done without an up-front application fee in recent years, Middlebury reinstituted it for this application season; its similar to what peer institutions charge.</p>
<p>Due to this change, we were already anticipating about 700-800 fewer applicants this year than we had last year, Clagett said, and that appears to have been about on target.</p>
<p>In addition, Clagett said, Many colleges across the country are experiencing a drop in applicants and it might be in part because students are narrowing their choices earlier in the application process in order to save on application fees in this difficult economy.
<p>It sounds like Middlebury received more applications in the past because they didn't charge a fee for the 'pre-application' and then counted pre-apps as completed apps (even when they didn't receive a completed application or fee). Zero percent of incomplete applications would have been accepted in the past. It sounds like past practice might just have contributed to their overall numbers without affecting the number of viable applications. Even with a drop in the number of applications, it doesn't seem likely that Middlebury will be lowering its standards this year. There's still a lot of cream at the top.</p>
<p>statistics are like bikinis. what they reveal is important. what they hide is vital.
the real concern here i guess would be the fact that so many of the seats are already taken under the early d rounds and the real ratio i.e the ratio of admits/apps for the regular d may be even lower.</p>
<p>the acceptance rate probably will be between 18-22% as it has been the last 3-4 years. the yield might be higher though, apparently other schools have seen an increase in their applications (harvard and many others), and generally the kids who apply to midd also tend to apply to those top schools.</p>
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the yield might be higher though, apparently other schools have seen an increase in their applications (harvard and many others), and generally the kids who apply to midd also tend to apply to those top schools.
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<p>Why would that reason make the yield higher? It seems to me that Middlebury will have more competition than in the past, which would make their yield lower.</p>
<p>If more kids apply to the Ivies and more are therefore rejected, then more on Middlebury's acceptee list would end up enrolling at Middlebury. A higher anticipated yield % could drive a lower number of Middlebury applicant acceptances. Is that the logic?</p>
<p>It's not like they're all going to be rejected though. It just depends where else they applied. You can just as easily have someone who in the past would've attended Middlebury, but now applies to Dartmouth too because of perceived better financial aid and ends up attending there instead.</p>
<p>The top applicants, and those that really want to go Middlebury, are still applying - and about the same numbers of them. The competition among the serious candidates looks to have stayed about the same, the way I interpret it. Most that constitute the 700-800 "drop" would probably not have been admitted anyway.</p>
<p>I read that too and it seems like a comparable number to the cutbacks at Dartmouth which are to equal 40 million. That Midd is half the size of undergrad, it kinda makes sense but I worry that it is going to really impact students more so than other things.</p>