Total Applications Growth/Decline, class of 2017

Applying to College
101

<p>Brandeis +14.2% (9,370)
[Univ</a> sees rise in early applications - News - The Justice - Brandeis University](<a href=“http://www.thejustice.org/news/univ-sees-rise-in-early-applications-1.2977922#]Univ”>http://www.thejustice.org/news/univ-sees-rise-in-early-applications-1.2977922#)</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>re-sort
Skidmore +42% (8,126)
Clark +27.8% (5,472)
Case Western +25% (>18,000)
UChicago +20% (30,369)
Boston U +19.4% (52,532)
UCSC +16.9% (38,507)
UC Merced +16.6% (14,966)
Brandeis +14.2% (9,370)
UCSB +13.9% (62,402)
UC Riverside +13.2% (33,809)
UC Davis +13.1% (55,877)
Tufts +12% (18,339)
UC Irvine +11.3% (60,619)
Alma +11.1% (1,820)
NYU +11.2% (48,606)
UCLA +10.8% (80,472)
UCSD +10.8% (67,403)
Babson +10.3% (6,080)
UC Berkeley +9.7% (67,658)
Emerson +9.7% (7,756)
Claremont McKenna ~+9% (5,461 by NYT, back-calc’d to be ~5510 from CMC)
Vanderbilt +8.9% (30,870)
Lehigh +8.7% (12,548)
Rochester +8.2% (17,146)
Colgate +6.9% (8,335)
Bowdoin +6.5% (7,150)
Stanford +5.9% (38,800)
Bates +5.9% (5,194)
Trinity +5.7% (7,500)
Columbia +5.1% (33,460)
Fordham +5.0% (35,229)
Wesleyan +4.2% (10,942)
U Southern Cal +3.7% (47,800)
Virginia +3.5% (~29,250)
Yale +2.8% (29,790)
Middlebury +2.6% (9,075)
William & Mary +2.5% (14,000)
Union +2.5% (5,643)
Olin +2.4% (800)
Barnard +2.3% (5,565)
Northwestern +2.2% (32,766)
Rice +1.4% (15,345)
Juliard +0.82% (2,338)
JHU +0.52% (20,608)
Duke +0.4% (31,752)
Brown +0.22% (28,733)
Villanova +0.21% (14,933)
Penn +0.00% (31,219)
Caltech -0.02% (5,536)
Scripps -0.29% (2,366)
Princeton -0.59% (26,505)
Holy Cross -1.3% (7,079)
Hamilton -1.8% (5,017)
Elon -2.5% (9,791)
Dartmouth -2.8% (22,400)
Williams -3.3% (6,836)
Bucknell -3.6% (7,834)
Vassar -3.9% (7,600)
Amherst -8.2% (7863)
RPI -10.7% (13,600)
Boston College -26% (~25,000)</p>

102

<p>Papa Chicken, thanks so much for posting all these numbers. I was wondering (if you have them on a spreadsheet) if you could put a final row indicating the aggregate number and pct change of overall apps. </p>

<p>Again, many thanks!</p>

103

<p>Wesleyan’s numbers are so close to the 11,000 mark that I wouldn’t be surprised if someone “found” an extra 60 or so applications by the end of March.</p>

104

<p>Another explanation for a jump in applications?</p>

<p>[Clark</a> University Goes Test-Optional | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/clark-university-goes-testoptional]Clark”>http://www.fairtest.org/clark-university-goes-testoptional)</p>

105

<p>Tulane was a free application, mass mailing, no essay school. They recently added an essay to limit applicants and improve applicant quality. They experienced a 13% drop. </p>

<p>[College</a> Application Rates 2011: Which Schools Saw A Decline?](<a href=“College Application Rates 2011: Which Schools Saw A Decline? | HuffPost College”>College Application Rates 2011: Which Schools Saw A Decline? | HuffPost College)</p>

<p>The number of Skidmore applications dropped recently as well. Skidmore used to have at least one essay and an interview. Now they do not have an essay, but I am not sure when they dropped it…</p>

106

<p>Papa Chicken</p>

<p>This is from the Tufts/UCB article I posted earlier. </p>

<p>Georgetown University, in Washington, had a similar experience. Total applications dipped less than 1 percent this year, though the decline would have been greater without a 10 percent increase in international applications, according to Charles Deacon, the dean of admissions</p>

107

<p>tougis- you are quite welcome! I am not exactly sure what data you’d like displayed that are not already there (% growth & total app numbers are already presented, isn’t that what you are asking for?) Please clarify.</p>

<p>Mastadon- I think you are right on about how these seemingly small things can greatly affect applications. No essay is one trick up the sleeve for sure. Indeed, I’d bet Skidmore’s meteoric rise this year is due to them dropping their essay…I hadn’t realized they had changed that requirement. Huge increase. (See post 90) And growth in international apps seem to be holding up many school’s overall growth rates. Williams, in an earlier article said their international apps (in ED I think) were down…and guess what? They were at -3.3% overall this year.</p>

<p>Here’s a good article about BC’s precipitous drop this year due to adding an essay…it works both ways. I say bully for them.
[Admissions</a> Receives 25,000 Applications for Class of 2017](<a href=“http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/publications/chronicle/FeaturesNewsTopstories/2013/top-stories/applications013013.html]Admissions”>http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/publications/chronicle/FeaturesNewsTopstories/2013/top-stories/applications013013.html)

</p>

<p>ps…with a degree in geology, Mastadon, I think that’s a great screen name you have there.</p>

108

<br>

<br>

<p>I think Tougis is looking for a total tally. Not sure what tallying a partial list that is so incomplete might achieve, but that seems to be the request. </p>

<p>This said, short of a few numbers, we should know how the Ivies plus Stanford and MIT fared in the aggregate. Especially when the total is so close to 300,000!</p>

109

<p>Mastadon- I hadn’t realized that Tufts/international article had revealed Georgetown’s apparent app growth/decline this year. At least I interpret the language to mean this season, and for the life of me I cannot readily find Georgetown’s numbers for last year to check if the same stats quoted in the article could be for last year (Georgetown is not on last year’s NYT summary either: [Colleges</a> Report 2012 Admissions Statistics - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/college-admits-2012/]Colleges”>Colleges Report 2012 Admissions Statistics - The New York Times))</p>

<p>So, here’s my quantification interpretation of the words quoted by Mastadon above:
Georgetown <0%, >-1% (apps unknown)</p>

<p>re-sort
Skidmore +42% (8,126)
Clark +27.8% (5,472)
Case Western +25% (>18,000)
UChicago +20% (30,369)
Boston U +19.4% (52,532)
UCSC +16.9% (38,507)
UC Merced +16.6% (14,966)
Brandeis +14.2% (9,370)
UCSB +13.9% (62,402)
UC Riverside +13.2% (33,809)
UC Davis +13.1% (55,877)
Tufts +12% (18,339)
UC Irvine +11.3% (60,619)
Alma +11.1% (1,820)
NYU +11.2% (48,606)
UCLA +10.8% (80,472)
UCSD +10.8% (67,403)
Babson +10.3% (6,080)
UC Berkeley +9.7% (67,658)
Emerson +9.7% (7,756)
Claremont McKenna ~+9% (5,461 by NYT, back-calc’d to be ~5510 from CMC)
Vanderbilt +8.9% (30,870)
Lehigh +8.7% (12,548)
Rochester +8.2% (17,146)
Colgate +6.9% (8,335)
Bowdoin +6.5% (7,150)
Stanford +5.9% (38,800)
Bates +5.9% (5,194)
Trinity +5.7% (7,500)
Columbia +5.1% (33,460)
Fordham +5.0% (35,229)
Wesleyan +4.2% (10,942)
U Southern Cal +3.7% (47,800)
Virginia +3.5% (~29,250)
Yale +2.8% (29,790)
Middlebury +2.6% (9,075)
William & Mary +2.5% (14,000)
Union +2.5% (5,643)
Olin +2.4% (800)
Barnard +2.3% (5,565)
Northwestern +2.2% (32,766)
Rice +1.4% (15,345)
Juliard +0.82% (2,338)
JHU +0.52% (20,608)
Duke +0.4% (31,752)
Brown +0.22% (28,733)
Villanova +0.21% (14,933)
Penn +0.00% (31,219)
Caltech -0.02% (5,536)
Scripps -0.29% (2,366)
Princeton -0.59% (26,505)
Georgetown <0%, >-1% (apps unknown)
Holy Cross -1.3% (7,079)
Hamilton -1.8% (5,017)
Elon -2.5% (9,791)
Dartmouth -2.8% (22,400)
Williams -3.3% (6,836)
Bucknell -3.6% (7,834)
Vassar -3.9% (7,600)
Amherst -8.2% (7863)
RPI -10.7% (13,600)
Boston College -26% (~25,000)</p>

110

<p>yup xiggi, I think you are right. tougis, as I stopped entering on my spreadsheet some time ago, give me a few days! Its doable for sure.</p>

111

<p>one more…</p>

<p>Pepperdine +10% (10,443)
[The</a> Pepperdine Graphic Record applications hit](<a href=“http://www.pepperdine-graphic.com/news/record-applications-hit/]The”>http://www.pepperdine-graphic.com/news/record-applications-hit/)</p>

<p>re-sort
Skidmore +42% (8,126)
Clark +27.8% (5,472)
Case Western +25% (>18,000)
UChicago +20% (30,369)
Boston U +19.4% (52,532)
UCSC +16.9% (38,507)
UC Merced +16.6% (14,966)
Brandeis +14.2% (9,370)
UCSB +13.9% (62,402)
UC Riverside +13.2% (33,809)
UC Davis +13.1% (55,877)
Tufts +12% (18,339)
UC Irvine +11.3% (60,619)
Alma +11.1% (1,820)
NYU +11.2% (48,606)
UCLA +10.8% (80,472)
UCSD +10.8% (67,403)
Babson +10.3% (6,080)
Pepperdine +10% (10,443)
UC Berkeley +9.7% (67,658)
Emerson +9.7% (7,756)
Claremont McKenna ~+9% (5,461 by NYT, back-calc’d to be ~5510 from CMC)
Vanderbilt +8.9% (30,870)
Lehigh +8.7% (12,548)
Rochester +8.2% (17,146)
Colgate +6.9% (8,335)
Bowdoin +6.5% (7,150)
Stanford +5.9% (38,800)
Bates +5.9% (5,194)
Trinity +5.7% (7,500)
Columbia +5.1% (33,460)
Fordham +5.0% (35,229)
Wesleyan +4.2% (10,942)
U Southern Cal +3.7% (47,800)
Virginia +3.5% (~29,250)
Yale +2.8% (29,790)
Middlebury +2.6% (9,075)
William & Mary +2.5% (14,000)
Union +2.5% (5,643)
Olin +2.4% (800)
Barnard +2.3% (5,565)
Northwestern +2.2% (32,766)
Rice +1.4% (15,345)
Juliard +0.82% (2,338)
JHU +0.52% (20,608)
Duke +0.4% (31,752)
Brown +0.22% (28,733)
Villanova +0.21% (14,933)
Penn +0.00% (31,219)
Caltech -0.02% (5,536)
Scripps -0.29% (2,366)
Princeton -0.59% (26,505)
Georgetown <0%, >-1% (apps unknown)
Holy Cross -1.3% (7,079)
Hamilton -1.8% (5,017)
Elon -2.5% (9,791)
Dartmouth -2.8% (22,400)
Williams -3.3% (6,836)
Bucknell -3.6% (7,834)
Vassar -3.9% (7,600)
Amherst -8.2% (7863)
RPI -10.7% (13,600)
Boston College -26% (~25,000)</p>

<p>I’d say that with the exception of Cal Tech, California is hot this year.</p>

112

<p>Georgetown
Year Admt Applic Percent<br>
2016 3,316 20,100 16.50<br>
2015 3,480 19,254 18.07<br>
2014 3,619 18,077 20.02</p>

<p>2016 should be slightly off as this was from April/May 2012, not from October!</p>

113

<p>Thanks Papa Chicken–much appreciated.</p>

<p>Xiggi, I understand that it’s a partial list, but there are a ton of (mostly prestigious) schools there, and it would be interesting to know that, e.g., the total list of apps for that list went up (say) 50K or 14%. I’m guessing it’s representative of schools of that caliber. Though I could be wrong, I’d be surprised if throwing in the remaining such schools would be likely to alter the overall aggregate pct. change.</p>

114

<p>Incidentally, I was happy to see the reduction at Vassar (since my D is applying there). Any thoughts on why that one occurred? Certainly not an essay issue.</p>

<p>I also wanted to mention my daughter’s theory about two other schools she’s applying to–the scofflaws, Emory and CMC. Her view is that their getting caught fudging their SAT figures actually helps them attract candidates, because now kids like her (3.8; 2200) think they might actually have a chance there.</p>

<p>Finally…could Bon Jovi have affected Hamilton?</p>

115

<p>Papa Chicken, would it be possible to add a notation to the stats. any schools that had substantial changes to their application procedures or other events impacting admissions this year? It might help us to scan for schools that truly did have a good or bad year vs. those that dropped/added essays, went SAT optional, or were rebounding from an unexpectedly bad admissions season in spring 2012.</p>

116

<p>Papa Chicken,</p>

<p>I had to read the Gtown info a few times, but I came to the same conclusion as you did.</p>

<p>Clark, BU, Brandeis, Tufts, Babson and Emerson are all in the Boston area, so if we give BC a pass for this year, the Boston area is “hot” as well (the temperature was in the 50’s today!) Amherst and Williams are out in the woods of central/western MA where it is much colder, so they don’t count.</p>

<p>I think there is a seismic shift going on in California. My theory is that economic considerations are causing a change in demographics in the UC system and potentially a change in behavior among college applicants. I know that here in the Boston area it used to be that very few people applied to UC schools because they were viewed as “closed” to outsiders. Then word got out that they might be accepting more OOS applicants to increase revenues, so many more people started applying (despite the unique application). I have also talked to a number of students here in the Boston area (from CA). Above and beyond the ones that just want to go to school in another part of the country, some started looking east due to concerns about budget cuts and increases in OOS percentages within the UC system. Of course the UC system is so huge that all it has to do is sneeze and a small school like Tufts gets blown into Boston Harbor. If my theory is correct, then I would expect that the private schools in CA (especially Stanford) would also see increased applicants. </p>

<p>My screen name helps me feel younger…</p>

117

<p>There’s a chart compiled here by the NY Times Choice (college admissions) blog:
<a href=“Application Tally 2013 - Graphic - NYTimes.com”>Application Tally 2013 - Graphic - NYTimes.com;

118

<p>thanks oldmom, hadn’t noticed the updates to the NYT list since we first posted from it a few days back. I am adding: St. Lawrence (+14.4%). [or maybe I missed this when I first posted.]</p>

<p>NYT- I know you are reading this. You may wish to add to your blog those we’ve found in the last few days like Brandeis, Union, and Pepperdine, as well as update your numbers for Tufts and CMC. And how about the big news on BC? Thanks</p>

<p>re-sort
Skidmore +42% (8,126)
Clark +27.8% (5,472)
Case Western +25% (>18,000)
UChicago +20% (30,369)
Boston U +19.4% (52,532)
UCSC +16.9% (38,507)
UC Merced +16.6% (14,966)
St Lawrence +14.4% (3,080)
Brandeis +14.2% (9,370)
UCSB +13.9% (62,402)
UC Riverside +13.2% (33,809)
UC Davis +13.1% (55,877)
Tufts +12% (18,339)
UC Irvine +11.3% (60,619)
Alma +11.1% (1,820)
NYU +11.2% (48,606)
UCLA +10.8% (80,472)
UCSD +10.8% (67,403)
Babson +10.3% (6,080)
Pepperdine +10% (10,443)
UC Berkeley +9.7% (67,658)
Emerson +9.7% (7,756)
Claremont McKenna ~+9% (5,461 by NYT, back-calc’d to be ~5510 from CMC)
Vanderbilt +8.9% (30,870)
Lehigh +8.7% (12,548)
Rochester +8.2% (17,146)
Colgate +6.9% (8,335)
Bowdoin +6.5% (7,150)
Stanford +5.9% (38,800)
Bates +5.9% (5,194)
Trinity +5.7% (7,500)
Columbia +5.1% (33,460)
Fordham +5.0% (35,229)
Wesleyan +4.2% (10,942)
U Southern Cal +3.7% (47,800)
Virginia +3.5% (~29,250)
Yale +2.8% (29,790)
Middlebury +2.6% (9,075)
William & Mary +2.5% (14,000)
Union +2.5% (5,643)
Olin +2.4% (800)
Barnard +2.3% (5,565)
Northwestern +2.2% (32,766)
Rice +1.4% (15,345)
Juliard +0.82% (2,338)
JHU +0.52% (20,608)
Duke +0.4% (31,752)
Brown +0.22% (28,733)
Villanova +0.21% (14,933)
Penn +0.00% (31,219)
Caltech -0.02% (5,536)
Scripps -0.29% (2,366)
Princeton -0.59% (26,505)
Georgetown <0%, >-1% (apps unknown)
Holy Cross -1.3% (7,079)
Hamilton -1.8% (5,017)
Elon -2.5% (9,791)
Dartmouth -2.8% (22,400)
Williams -3.3% (6,836)
Bucknell -3.6% (7,834)
Vassar -3.9% (7,600)
Amherst -8.2% (7863)
RPI -10.7% (13,600)
Boston College -26% (~25,000)</p>

119

<p>xiggi- should have guessed you’d have those data at your fingertips, thanks. As the '15 to '16 growth rate (4.4%) does not match the <0,>-1 report, I’m more confident that report is for this season.</p>

<p>tougis- good theory, I was guessing the added exposure was the key but I like your twist on the possibility of better chances. Unless someone does a Gallup survey, we’ll never know though. And on Bon Jovi…I had to figure out that he gave a benefit concert for Hamilton this past December…are you implying that his appearance caused applications to drop? Hah…I guess my kids might have been turned off if they knew who he was.</p>

120

<p>Did anyone happen to notice that the two graphs in the Northwestern press release don’t show a consistent relationship between acceptance rate and number of applications?</p>

<p>‘07-‘08 applications rose by 3072 (14%) and the acceptance rate dropped 1%
’08-’09 applications rose by 357 (1.4%) and the acceptance rate rose by 1%
’09-’10 applications rose by 2,245 (8.8%) and the acceptance rate dropped by 4%
’10-’11 applications rose by 3,322 (12%) and the acceptance rate dropped by 5%
’11-’12 applications rose by 1,128 (3.6%) and the acceptance rate dropped by 3%
’12-’13 applications rose by 701 (2.2%) and the projected acceptance rate drop of 1-2%</p>

<p>Not that there is anything wrong with this, just that there are other factors (such as yield)at work.
It would be interesting to see the percent of the class that was ED/EA admits each year.</p>