record apps

<p><a href="http://dukenews.duke.edu/2006/02/recordapplications.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://dukenews.duke.edu/2006/02/recordapplications.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That's encouraging for applicants like me!</p>

<p>All sarcasm aside, thanks for the info.</p>

<p>..... dead...</p>

<p>ditto........</p>

<p>Yeh, this kinda sucks. Almost all the schools I applied to got "record-setting" apps, so all I can do is try to look on the bright side, but the light sure is fading fast...</p>

<p>It seems that almost every year colleges get "record" numbers of applications (aside from Tulane, perhaps...) I wonder, are these increases in applications consistent with normal increases in the high school senior population, or are they due to a wave of hypercompetitive parents pushing their kids even harder? Still, the SAT is still normed so the average on each section is roughly 500...</p>

<p>Any thoughts?</p>

<p>Well, I think it's just a rising senior class, and more people moving into the middle class with time. Don't believe it's hyper parents, at least in my case. Maybe becuase they didn't go so it's all different for them.</p>

<p>Apparently, even Tulane is having a record year for applications. I'm sure it is in large part to the mass e-mails and offers for no-fee "personal applications" that I'm sure many of you all have recieved.</p>

<p>they've sent those out every year</p>

<p>I think the main reason for the increased numbers of apps at colleges all across the country is that more students are applying to more and more schools. It used to be that seniors would apply to 3 or 4 colleges. Now they seem to apply to 8, 10, 12, 15....it has gotten crazy. My first three kids applied to only 2 or 3 schools each. My current senior has applied to 8, half of them reaches. Lucky for her, we can afford the fees.</p>

<p>be an optimist. there is not much use in being anything else !</p>

<p>it's pretty useful to be a realist.</p>

<p>agreed, no broken hearts</p>

<p>Now that students (I'm guilty) are applying to 8 schools, many of them being "elite" or "reaches," colleges will be forced to admit more students. There's been no drastic increase in the high school student population, just an increase in the number of applications. Although Duke will enroll about the same amount of students each year, they will admit more because they increasingly lose more and more applicants to other institutions (the other 7 schools the student applied to.) Yield rates inevitably suffer. To counter this effect, colleges have employed the ED and SCEA plans, which, in the end, are sticking it to the student. Many competitive schools form nearly 50% of their freshmen class from ED/SCEA pools. This is the real reason for such ridiculously low RD admission rates. I say ED should be banned, it screws everyone over except for the greedy universities who want high yield numbers and low admission percentages. Early action is the way to go.</p>