<p>Here’s the scoop on this year’s admissions process at Bowdoin (as reported in the Bowdoin student newspaper):</p>
<p>1% increase in total number of applications (to 6021)
target class size: 475 members
schedule for mailing of decisions
-second week in March for early writes
-last week in March for the rest</p>
<p>early decision (both EDI and EDII) process:
-689 applications
-210 acceptances
-acceptance rate: 30.4%
-admitted applicants include: 21 Mainers, 14 internationals, and 33 students of color
-slight decrease in ED numbers from last year (710 ED applications and 211 acceptances for this year’s first-year class)</p>
<p>oh wow, thanks so much! Extremely useful information. It seems like Bowdoin is the only school I'm applying to that hasn't experienced a 20% increase in applications this year - finally some luck.</p>
<p>what does the article mean when it says "certain students of color"? It says, for early writes, they will send them out to students at the top of the admission office's list and certain students of color, but how does one become that certain student?</p>
<p>I am a student of color and in these type of circumstances would consider myself in the upper half of applicants, so how likely is it that I will get a likely letter? I'm sorry if I sound boatsful or anything, I just don't really understand what they mean.</p>
<p>Hi guys. I'm actually the guy who wrote this article. The reason Admissions sends out early admissions in the second week of March to some students is for two reasons:
1) If you're at the top of their list, and they're ready to accept you, then yo'ull get a letter so you know that Bowdoin really wants you and so you can plan your visit well in advance.
2) If you're a student of color (that means any non-Caucasian race, I think (it might be even more inclusive), not just black) who is very likely to be accepted. This is because the admissions office holds a multicultural "experience" weekend near the beginning of April, and in order to give you time to sign up for the weekend, they might give you your acceptances earlier. However, this does NOT mean that if you are a student of color and you haven't received your acceptance by the third week of March that you weren't accepted.</p>
<p>Piratemonkey... Dean Shain told me that the other NESCAC schools' stats were given to him on a confidential basis, so he wouldn't show them to me, but he did say that other schools also showed little growth.</p>
<h2>From the article:</h2>
<p>Shain said that Bowdoin's NESCAC rivals saw similar gains.</p>
<h2>"My sense is that it is rare this year for a liberal arts college to see an increase of more than two to three percent in U.S. applications," he said.</h2>
<p>If you guys have any other questions on this topic, please don't hesitate to e-mail me (you can find my e-mail in my profile, I think).</p>
<p>Incidentally, if you are interested in joining the newspaper at Bowdoin, please let me know and I'll tell you a little about it!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Dean Shain told me that the other NESCAC schools' stats were given to him on a confidential basis, so he wouldn't show them to me, but he did say that other schools also showed little growth.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Except for Amherst (17% increase), Williams (11% increase), and Middlebury (8.5% increase).</p>
<p>Since all the other "top" schools in the group seem to have significant increases, where does that leave Bowdoin? Can someone put these stats in perspective?</p>
<p>The explanation is simple for the Amherst and Williams increases - both schools announced their decisions to get rid of loans as part of financial aid packages well before their application deadlines. Bowdoin has adopted a similar policy but did not do so until after the deadline for applications had passed.</p>
<p>hamilton has also had significant increases in applicants. it's not just the "top" schools (in the NESCAC) with increases, although it does seem that way from the above post. the speculation by the bowdoin dean of admissions is, clearly, incorrect.</p>
<p>i'm unsure how differences in applicant increases in a single year signal anything other than variable popularity, unless those increases or decreases are consistent over the course of a few years. drawing conclusions solely on the basis of the increases experienced this year by some ivy league universities but not by others should similarly be avoided. i, for one, don't think stanford is in any way less of a university relative to dartmouth, say, because its increase in applicants was a fraction of dartmouth's.</p>
<p>
[quote]
hamilton has also had significant increases in applicants. it's not just the "top" schools (in the NESCAC) with increases, although it does seem that way from the above post. the speculation by the bowdoin dean of admissions is, clearly, incorrect.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Actually the Hamilton increase in applications was modest too - from 4961 to 5075 or about a 2% increase. Hamilton's big increase was in the prior year . .</p>
<p>and Bates - an 11% increase in applicants, from 4650 to 5160 applicants. Bates admission rate this year is likely to be 27%, two points lower than last year.</p>
<p>I think that the schools are seeing such big increases in applicants because everyone these days applies to more schools than they should. I can talk - I applied to 12. But if you hear that everyone around you is applying to eight, ten, twelve schools, you will want to apply to more.</p>
<p>I haven't gotten anything, but I'm worried because I haven't been able to send in my tax returns yet (which they asked me for), so I hope that doesn't affect my chances of finding out earlier</p>
<p>Anyone else in this same situation, cause I'm getting really nervous</p>