<p>As the stats reporting season is now progressing from early apps to total apps, this thread is for reporting total application growth or decline, relative to last year.</p>
<p>Boston U +19.4% (52,532)
Stanford +5% to +6% (38463 to 38829)
Columbia +5% (33,460)
Duke +0.4% (31,741)
Brown +0.22% (28,733; more to count)
Dartmouth -3% (22,400)</p>
<p>interesting correlation of apps # and % growth over last year.</p>
<p>The number of applicants to Boston U seems like a lot, until you realize that it represents fewer than 3 applicants per spot in the freshman class. Stanford, by comparison, has over 22 applicants per spot. </p>
<p>Still, Boston U’s large growth is impressive. You may soon see them becoming closer to Boston College in terms of selectivity.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s a big drop. The article pins the decrease on a new essay requirement. Perhaps folks just applied to BU instead?</p>
<p>Re-sort</p>
<p>Boston U +19.4% (52,532)
Stanford +5% to +6% (38463 to 38829)
Columbia +5% (33,460)
Duke +0.4% (31,741)
Brown +0.22% (28,733; more to count)
Dartmouth -3% (22,400)
Boston College -26% (~25,000)</p>
<p>You look back a little further and these numbers are even more staggering. Stanford now has about 3 times as many applicants as it did as recently as 1990. [url=<a href=“http://news.stanford.edu/pr/92/920203Arc2447.html]1992”>http://news.stanford.edu/pr/92/920203Arc2447.html]1992</a> freshman applications show little change from 1991<a href=“see%20the%20chart%20at%20the%20end”>/url</a> And because its yield has increased it now accepts even fewer of those applicants.</p>
<p>SocalPapa—I assume some of that is due to population changes and some to increased # of applications/applicant and the Common App? My brother’s HS graduating class was almost half the size of mine in the space of the nine years from early 80s to early 90s. I think this graduation was a low point in the enrollment of our HS and imagine it mirrored national trends, give or take a couple of years. Enrollment is now almost back up at the level it was when I graduated. I have watched the same thing in the town where I now live. </p>
<p>I am enjoying reading these posts but find myself having to focus on which Papa is writing! Thanks for all of the info.</p>
<p>CT: Some has to do with population increase, but most has to do with students applying to more schools, plus certain factors unique to each school. I did a quick search through Stanford’s admissions press releases over time. Below is what I found. I do not guarantee 100% accuracy, but the streak from 2005 to 2013 is incredible.</p>
<p>Case Western +25% (>18,000)
Boston U +19.4% (52,532)
Stanford +5% to +6% (38463 to 38829)
Columbia +5% (33,460)
Duke +0.4% (31,741)
Brown +0.22% (28,733; more to count)
Dartmouth -3% (22,400)
Boston College -26% (~25,000)</p>
<p>Purely anecdotal, but the two schools on your list with the largest increase in applications are schools from which I received the most amount of marketing materials (postcards, magazines, letters, brochures, emails) last winter, spring and summer.</p>
<p>Case Western +25% (>18,000)
Boston U +19.4% (52,532)
Tufts +10.9% (18,167) (“and counting”)
Stanford +5% to +6% (38463 to 38829)
Columbia +5% (33,460)
Duke +0.4% (31,741)
Brown +0.22% (28,733; more to count)
Dartmouth -3% (22,400)
Boston College -26% (~25,000)</p>
<p>OlympiaSnowe- the articles on BU put much of the credit to an invigorated recruiting campaign, & I’d bet you CWR did the same thing. There was a recent WSJ article on how Northeastern has boosted its selectivity by a substantial ‘get out the apps’ campaign (here, but now unavailable to non-subscribers: [Colleges</a> Rise as They Reject - WSJ.com](<a href=“Colleges Rise as They Reject - WSJ”>Colleges Rise as They Reject - WSJ) ). If I recall from the article, a main driver for the trend we seem to be witnessing is rooted in simple supply & demand…the peak of the college-going HS grads occurred in '07-'08, and the supply has been tapering off since then, hence more competition for the dwindling supply. Apps go up not because there are more kids applying, but because each applicant is applying to more schools. Northeastern’s response, and perhaps BU & CWR as well, is to boost their apparent selectivity by attracting (through stepped-up recruiting campaigns) and rejecting more applicants. I opine that the Ivies, for the most part having been very PR & recruiting savvy for years now (witness their quick applications stat releases historically), have tapped out their big upward applications growth potential already (note their more moderate apps growth this year) and are now seeing growth driven largely by more applicants submitting a greater number of applications. Put another way, some of the less known schools have more potential to increase their market visibility and make bigger leaps in apps growth…and increasing ‘selectivity’ by rejecting more certainly gets attention. Its gotta top out at some point.</p>
<p>Socal…thanks for pointing out the Tufts info; I will post ED stats momentarily to the Early thread.</p>
<p>Nice work Papa Chicken & Socal Papa!! And I agree - CWRU sent out a lot of mail ( and not to forget - they have a “FREE” app) and that is why I applied to CWRU last minute, even though it was not on my original list!!
I think a lot of colleges are increasing their application no.'s through free apps and other such sops!! </p>
<p>On a side note, Are the names just a coincidence??</p>
