I have to agree, without even considering gap year students some people argue that the pool of new applicants is more or less the same as other years. That is simply not true, making SAT/ACT optional removes a huge hurdle for both applicants and I would argue even more so AOs. AOs greatly prefer the freedom to accept students they view as “best fit” for their particular school regardless of score but at most competitive schools (which have the added pressure of a large percentage of student athletes) the pressure to maintain a high 25-75% score meant many would be accepts had to be rejected (no clue if that was the case but Swarthmore-Obama comes to mind here…). There is a silver lining here though; at the top level there are many, many just as wonderful schools (even Middlebury comes to mind, highly regarded here but not many in the general population know about it much less equate it with Ivy caliber) could potentially raise in prestige and they should. There is plenty of room (both demand and supply) at the very top and I think long term it would be beneficial for everyone even if in the short term expectations have to be tempered. It will take a while to see how this to plays out…
Prestige is also often geographical. For example, Middlebury is very highly regarded in the East Coast, but practically unknown in the Midwest and the SE. On the other hand, Carleton is very highly regarded in the Midwest, but is practically unknown in the East.
In general, very few of the LACs which have “Ivy Caliber” have much known about them outside of the area where they happen to be situated.
I don’t like the concept of “Ivy Caliber” since the reputation of the “Ivies” has a lot to do with branding, enforced exclusivity, and wealth. They’re great colleges, but they’re hardly a category of “academic excellence” in and of themselves, as much as they would like the world to believe this.
Me neither, bad choice of words there.
I think that “Ivy-level name recognition” probably describes what we’re referring to better. So Williams doesn’t have the name recognition that Princeton does, Carleton doesn’t have the Name recognition that UChicago does, And Pomona doesn’t have the name recognition of Stanford.
honestly, this does not surprise me at all. acceptance rates will be abysmally low this year, notably because many students at so many colleges chose to take a gap year. i mean, i’d say close to 100 students in the class of 2024 at my college chose to defer their admission, which is around 22% of a regular class size.
i wonder how much of a percentage increase in applications LACs that don’t require supplemental essays, no longer require SAT/ACT scores, and do not require an application fee have seen. kind of frightening.
You have seen Colgate’s figures, right? Its overall applications rose 102.6% compared to last year’s total.
Here’s what happens when you eliminate the requirement to submit standardized test scores AND nix application fees:
http://www.colby.edu/news/2021/01/13/15700-students-apply-to-colby/
And don’t have any supplemental essays!
i hadn’t seen colgate’s totals! that’s absolutely bonkers. @arcadia thank you for linking the article! college admissions this year will be n u t s.
You might find the contrasts within Colgate’s application figures to be interesting as well. While overall applications were, as previously stated, up 103%, students who applied EDI were welcomed by a 61% acceptance rate.
Might be a good time to consider buying real estate in Vermont.
Expect Middlebury College apps to soar as a result of rail service from NYC to Burlington with a stop in Middlebury.
Do you think this will change for the class of 2026？
Wow. 61 percent ED acceptance. That is so high. I can only imagine how low regular decision acceptance rates will be. Sort of regret my daughter not applying ED–she hadn’t seen much so was afraid to commit to a school now regular admissions numbers are so scary.
The high acceptance rate of ED applicants is because the huge jump in applications was not reflected much in ED applications (only 6.4% increase).
However, those numbers are off, since last year there were over 1,000 ED applicants, and 900-something the year before, and they are claiming a 6.4% increase in ED applicants.
I think that these are the results of ED1, and the results of ED2 have yet to come out. The overall admission rate of ED applicants is likely going to be lower. The ED1 applicants include the recruited athletes and likely most of the legacies, which is why there is a 61% admission rate. ED2 admissions will likely be closer to 30% or 20%, and ED admission rate will end up being around 40%, like last year.
Thanks I appreciate the information.
Midd does WL a good number but I think they also use their WL. They are just very yield aware in RD.
So they are afraid to admit kids that may not come? Have you seen this with other applicants in the past?
Yes. Our S was WL in 2019. He was high stats and had a terrific alumni interview that went two hours long at a local coffee shop. The alum even checked in after decisions and told him he was surprised.
I think it might be dependent on the history of the high school a bit. Our school has sent recruited athletes there ED. Everyone else who has applied has been pretty stellar academically and EC-wise but only get waitlisted except for one student who got in in 2017 who attended and transferred out after freshman year to Vanderbilt.
I think it’s hard to show fit there because they don’t have a supplement, so I don’t know how they figure out their yield. S19 showed as much interest as he could have but we didn’t visit and maybe that would have helped. That was, of course, pre-Covid.
Midd will be an interesting experiment for us this year. D21 applied. Her GPA is a bit lower than S19’s and she went TO while he sent a 1540 and all 5s on his AP tests. She did go to some virtual events. I’m expecting a no, maybe a WL.
Our friends in the Northeast say kids with way lower stats than S19 get in from their high schools. I assume they have records of sending kids there so it’s a safer bet for Middlebury.
I guess this year we will just have to see! D21 did check the Feb box as kind of a hedge in case Covid was a thing this fall. I also think that shows interest because the student is willing to wait.
Good luck to all!
Im laughing as I think our kids applied to all the same schools as I see your posts on every school I check! 
Good luck to your daughter! I have a son.
Didn’t we meet here when your S19 was looking at colleges?