Statistics for 2010 RD at elite universities are trickling in ...

Parents Forum
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<p>Xiggi,
You'll be happy to hear that the Penn students can in fact check their own math (even those with lowly math sat's of 704) and the DP had a clarifying article about the stats. Suffice it to say, the huge increase in applications ED was not maintained RD...RD applications were up something like 5% I think, ED were up 21%. </p>

<p>Many people who read these boards are aware that the stats for applicants, accepted students and matriculated students vary-- as well as a host of other relative esoterica. Perhaps the Penn admissions office, and others, would be well advised to pause before publishing stats that beg confusion for those who are not so geared in to these topics.</p>

<p>As applicants, or parents of applicants, it is our job to form opinions based on a wide range of inputs about various schools....and it is never a great idea to rely solely on what you are told that can be succinctly stated in a single sentence or paragraph...I would prefer to take a more generous view of admissions officers and offices in general- Penn has a relatively 'slick' operation compared to some, but many other schools were considerably more disgenuine and less informative in my experience...</p>

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<p>Robyrm, I do not lose any sleep over the way Penn releases its numbers. I take them as they come, but I cannot help noticing the rather cavalier attitude exhibiting by Penn. Many schools, including my own, seem reluctant to publish their Common Data Set. However, few schools could benefit more than Penn from a bit of integrity in documenting the admission process. After all, the good ol' Stetson himself admitted that Penn would not survive an audit of the numbers his office discloses. He must have his reasons!</p>

23

<p>From today's Chronicle (campus paper):</p>

<p><a href="http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/02/43e1f1b4eb5ca%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/02/43e1f1b4eb5ca&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>that link isn't working....found the 1st page though; here's 2 excerpts:</p>

<p>Got Duke? Well, 19,282 high
school seniors want in.
For the fifth consecutive year,
Duke has received a record-setting
number of applications for
its future freshman class.
The University received 1,193
more applications than last year,
2,541 more than two years ago
and 4,572 more than five years
ago. The Pratt School of Engineering
received 3,343 applications—
1,000 more than five
years ago.</p>

<p>....AND.....</p>

<p>Applications from students
of color—including Asian or
Asian American, black and
Latino students—are up approximately
1,200 from last
year. These students made up
approximately 41.6 percent of
the total number of individuals
who applied.</p>

25

<p>Thanks Papa. You should be able click on to <a href="http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.chronicle.duke.edu/&lt;/a> and then click on the article.</p>

26

<p>Here another report…Brown:
<a href="http://www.browndailyherald.com/media/paper472/news/2006/01/27/CampusNews/Regular.Applicant.Pool.Rises.8.Percent-1515327.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.browndailyherald.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.browndailyherald.com/media/paper472/news/2006/01/27/CampusNews/Regular.Applicant.Pool.Rises.8.Percent-1515327.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.browndailyherald.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Excerpt:
"The University has received 18,250 regular decision applications, an eight percent rise from last year's pool, according to Dean of Admissions James Miller '73.</p>

<p>While an increase in applications from women has produced an applicant pool that is approximately 60 percent female, in terms of demographics, "it looks likes we're getting more of everything," Miller said. "The increases have been pretty much across the board in terms of geography and ethnicity."</p>

<p>Last year's regular decision pool of 16,900 was an increase of 10 percent from the year before."</p>

27

<p>1sokkermom-- my comp must have been on the fritz last night...your 1st link works now, thanks</p>

<p>another interesting tidbit from the Duke article.....almost 10% of the applicants are from California.</p>

28

<p>Dartmouth Applications increase by 10 percent in 2006 </p>

<p>Nearly 14,000 high school seniors submitted regular decision applications to Dartmouth this year, a 10 percent increase over last year's number, according to the Undergraduate Office of Admissions.</p>

<p>The official number of total applicants is currently unknown, however, because many applications come in late or are still missing components. Undergraduate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg estimates the final number of applications will surpass 14,000.</p>

<p>Furstenberg credited the growing interest in Dartmouth to three factors, the first of which is Dartmouth's rising popularity.</p>

<p>"Dartmouth is definitely a 'hot' place right now," Furstenberg said. "We are getting a lot of positive press, and there's just an increased awareness of Dartmouth as a great academic institution." </p>

<p>"There are simply more students graduating from high-school," he said, "and the stronger parts of that pool are drawn to elite schools like Dartmouth."</p>

<p>"Electronic applications mean that it's just flat-out easier to apply," Furstenberg said.</p>

<p>The availability and convenience of applying online also helped boost the number of international applications by 19 percent. Applications from students of color were also up 12 percent from last year, and applications from women were up 15 percent.</p>

<p>"What's really fantastic about our growing numbers is that they are across the board," Furstenberg said. </p>

<p>As the number of applications continues to rise each year, the admissions office is faced with a more challenging selection process, according to Furstenberg.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2006020201010%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2006020201010&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

29

<p><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=31539%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=31539&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Excerpts:</p>

<p>Total applications increased by 7.5 percent from last year, when there were 19,451 received. Of this year's applications, 4,084 were received early, compared to 3,926 last fall.</p>

<p>..... the increase in applications from African-American and Latino students was greater than the overall rate at which total applications increased.</p>

<p>Some other Ivy League schools have also reported increases in their total number of applications received this year.......The University of Pennsylvania received 20,350 regular-decision applications, an increase of 8 percent from last year. Columbia University received 19,730 total applications this year, 9 percent more than last year, and Brown University's number of regular-decision applications rose 6.7 percent as their total reached 15,871.</p>

<p>This fall, the Yale Admissions Office accepted 724 students from the early application pool, for an early acceptance rate of 17.7 percent.</p>

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<p>Frosh apps to UC system increased 8.8% (to 83k). The system also experienced an 11% increase in both AfAm and Hispanic apps.</p>

<p>Apps to Berkeley increased 12.5%, UCLA increased 9.9%, while Irvine's increse exceeded 14%. San Diego and Davis had the smallest increases, 5.8% and 4.7%, respectively.</p>

31

<p>I know University of Vermont isn't an elite college, but I didn't think this deserved its own thread. This from UVM's website:</p>

<p>Applications to the University of Vermont have risen 36.7 percent over last year's record level, setting a new high of 17,616 to date. Last year at this time, 12,890 applications had been received. Before last year, the record was 11,953, set in 1987 at the height of UVM's public ivy era. Applications have more than doubled since 2001.</p>

<p>Diversity in the applicant pool also increased significantly, with a 63.4 percent rise in the number of applicants identifying themselves as African American, Asian American, Latino, or Native American.</p>

<p>Vermont applications also set a new record of 2,143, rising 19.3 percent over last year's total of 1,796.</p>

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<p>The really wonderful thing here is that to a certain extent this is NOT a zero sum game. One college does not necessarily enjoy an increase in applications at the expense of another. If we can just get our kids to apply to more and more colleges, then hopefully every college will be able to brag about increasing their number of applications!! Oh happy happy! And they can all lower their acceptance rate. Maintaining yield will be a bit trickier, but they can always go to the wait list.</p>

<p>I am still looking forward to reading the article, "Yale this year was thrilled to report that noone was accepted to the class of 2023. The university has achieved a perfect zero percent acceptance rate."</p>

33

<p>UChicago applications at record levels. International applications up 33%.</p>

<p><a href="http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/060216/applications.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/060216/applications.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

34

<p>So there's this huge rise in applications, but up much, much more than population increases in that age range. That can mean several different things. The quality of those applying to "top schools" (not those accepted, but those applying) is declining. The number of multiple applications is increasing. The number of students increasingly being shut out of state universities is expanding. And the financial aid available to poorer students is declining, resulting in more "hail mary's" at so-called need-blind schools.</p>

<p>I can't see how any of these is a good thing - not for the schools, not for the students, and not for the country. All that can be said for sure is more rejects.</p>

35

<p>A lot of giddy Admissions Officers this year. </p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon announced 18,493 apps this year, up 20% from 15,436 last year (which was up 15% from the year before).</p>

36

<p>Maybe overworked, and shivering in their boots as they try to calculate yield.</p>

37

<p>any predictions on what year top colleges will each have 50,000 applicants?</p>

38

<p>
[quote]
The number of multiple applications is increasing.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I like this bet. With the on-line Common Application, adding an extra college or three or six to the list is little more than a mouse-click away.</p>

<p>Plus, with the merit aid game in full swing, you have students playing a dual-track strategy: applying to a slate of reaches and another full slate of matches with money.</p>

39

<p>Yup. And (as noted in another post), the combined Ivy admit rate (once you take away the true Hail Marys and the international unadmittables) is probably over 40%. But to achieve that rate (given the early admits), lots of folks have to be applying to 5 or more. The chances of students ending up where they really don't want to be goes up, even as marginal utility of more applications at like institutions goes down.</p>

40

<p>If the percentage increase posted downthread was correct, UCLA will be a little under 50K...something like 48K.</p>