"Application numbers across the Ivy League surged this year, with almost every school receiving a record number of applications. As a result, every Ivy saw a lower acceptance rate this cycle, with the exception of Yale.
Yale had a record-breaking 32,900 applicants for the class of 2021, a 5 percent uptick from last year. In preparation for the opening of two new residential colleges, Yale accepted 2,272 students from this pool, 300 more students than last year. Yale was the only school in the Ivy League to see its acceptance rate increase, moving from 6.27 percent to 6.9 percent this year." …
Duh. this a brainer since they needed to admit extra students to fill the 200 spots they have at the new colleges. Admit 300 more in the hopes of a 200 acceptance yield. About right. And if i was on the losing end of the equation, going from 6.27 to 6.9 is not very comforting.
Yale had the second-largest percentage increase in total applications this year in the Ivy League (+4.6%, second only to Princeton’s 6.0%). As @Tperry1982, says, though, the 15.2% increase in offers, reflecting the expansion of the student body with the opening of the two new colleges, overwhelmed the increase in apps.
More unqualified students applying to Ivy League (and other selective) colleges. This is nothing new as students continue to flood admissions offices with applications hoping something will stick.
I think it’s important to distinguish between “unqualified” and “unlikely to be admitted.” I think Yale and its peers receive many applications from students who would have no problem performing very well there, but who are nevertheless unlikely to be admitted because their stats are not quite as good as those of numerous other applicants.