Mathacle's Blog

Princeton Received 26,663 Applications for Class of 2016

2012-01-30T09:04:00.000-08:00

Princeton University has received 26,663 applications for admission to the Class of 2016, with many of them also applying for the University’s no-loan financial aid program.

This is the second-largest applicant pool in the University’s history. Over the past eight years, the University has seen a 95 percent increase in applications, including seven continuous years of growth leading to a record 27,189 applications last year for the Class of 2015.

"We've seen a steady growth in the number of applicants, due to the University's academic excellence, students' unrivaled access to world-class faculty members and our generous financial aid policy," Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said. "The number of graduating high school students in this country has dropped in the past few years, so we have been expecting the pool to plateau at some point. The growing availability of early admission programs also may be contributing to a general leveling off of applications.

"The applicant pool this year is broad and deep in terms of quality, and we are pleased that many of the applicants are aware of our financial aid program and intend to apply for aid," Rapelye said.

Through the University's pioneering no-loan financial aid program, all students on financial aid are offered grants that don't have to be repaid — giving students an opportunity to graduate debt-free. The admission process is need-blind for both domestic and international students.

The applicants include 3,476 candidates who applied last fall through single-choice early action. The University's undergraduate admission office offered admission to 726 of the early applicants in mid December. This is the first year since 2006 that the University has offered an early application round for prospective students whose first college choice is Princeton.

For the second year, almost all of the students applied online using the Common Application with the Princeton supplement.

Applicants will be notified of admission decisions by late March. About 1,300 freshmen will enroll in the fall of 2012 when total enrollment is expected to reach a “steady state” of 5,200 following a continued gradual expansion of the student body that began in 2005.

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/77/23O34/index.xml?section=topstories

Brown received 28,671 applications for the class of 2016

2012-01-28T19:34:00.001-08:00

The University received 28,671 applications for the class of 2016, marking a 7 percent decline from the previous year. This drop in applications follows a record-setting year in which the University received the largest number of applications in its history. This year's total ranks only behind the applications for the classes of 2015 and 2014, respectively, according to a University statement. In 2011, total applications rose by 3 percent, and in 2010, they rose by 21 percent compared to the year prior. Over the previous five years, the number of applicants had grown by almost 50 percent.
"We've anticipated this kind of leveling off in application numbers for several years in the wake of slight declines in the number of high school graduates nationally," said Jim Miller '73, dean of admission, in the release. "And the reintroduction of early admission programs at several peer schools increased the likelihood that applications would be lower."
Brown is not the only school to experience a drop in applications this year. Columbia, Harvard and Penn all received fewer applications, though only Columbia's decline was greater than Brown's.
Harvard, which reinstated its early action program this year, received 34,825 regular decision applications, a drop of 1.9 percent, according to an article published in the Harvard Crimson.
Meanwhile, the number of applicants increased at Dartmouth, Duke University, Cornell, Stanford University and Yale, according to a New York Times blog. Dartmouth saw an uptick in applications of 2.98 percent, Duke of 6.13 percent, Cornell of 3.53 percent, Stanford of 6.98 percent and Yale of 5.05 percent.
While the overall number of applicants decreased, international candidates increased to constitute a record 16 percent of all regular decision applicants. The largest contributors to the international pool were China, Canada, Korea and India, compared to last year's group of China, Korea, India, Pakistan and Turkey. The University received applications from 141 countries, two more than it did last year.

http://www.browndailyherald.com/web-update-total-applications-drop-by-7-percent-1.2691308#.TyS9ovk8eTY

Harvard Received 34,285 Applications for Class of 2016

2012-01-26T12:09:00.000-08:00

For the first time in five years, Harvard College has seen a dip in applicantions. This year, 34,285 students applied for spots in the Harvard College Class of 2016, down 665 applicants from last year.

The 1.9 percent decline in applications comes after an all-time high of 34,950 applications for this year’s freshman class.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said he attributes the decline in applications to Princeton's and the University of Virginia’s reinstatements of their early action programs, a move which Harvard also made this year. The three colleges’ decisions to offer early action programs after a four-year hiatus may have led students to apply to fewer colleges, Fitzsimmons said.

Fitzsimmons also noted that the number of high school seniors from the Northeast, home to many of Harvard’s applicants each year, has decreased.

While Fitzsimmons said the make-up of this year’s applicant pool resembled last year’s, he noted that international applications to the College increased by only 5 percent this year, as opposed to last year’s 20 percent jump.

Fitzsimmons credited the rise in applicant numbers over the past five years to Harvard’s generous financial aid. Under the current financial aid program, students whose families earn less than $65,000 per year attend the College for free. Most families with incomes of less than $150,000 are asked to contribute no more than 10 percent of their annual income.

Other Ivy League institutions also witnessed a decline in their application numbers this year. Applications to Columbia University decreased by 8.9 percent, according to The Columbia Spectator, and applications to the University of Pennsylvania decreased by 1.7 percent this admissions cycle, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

However, Yale saw applications rise by 8.5 percent and Stanford by 7 percent.

Last year, 2,188 students were admitted, leading to a record-low acceptance rate of 6.2 percent.

Harvard has already admitted 772 students to the Class of 2016 through its reinstated early action program.

Admissions officers are currently reviewing applications for the regular decision cycle as well as those of students who were deferred during the early action process.

Regular decision applicants will be notified of their admissions decisions by email on March 29. All admitted students, whether they are admitted in December or March, must accept or decline Harvard’s offer by May 1.

—Staff writer Elizabeth S. Auritt can be reached at eauritt@college.harvard.edu.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/1/26/admissions-applications-decline-2016/

Cornell Received 37,673 Applications for Class of 2016

2012-01-26T07:56:00.000-08:00

Seeing its number of early decision applicants rise 3.3 percent from last year, Cornell accepted almost 33 percent of its early decision applicants for the Class of 2016 — a 2.35 percent decrease from last year.

While the number of accepted early decision applicants dropped, statistics show that applying early decision to Cornell did not become dramatically more difficult for the Class of 2016.

Jason Locke, director of undergraduate admissions, said that 1,171 students were admitted under the early decision program this year — 44 students fewer than were accepted for the Class of 2015. 36.4 percent of the incoming freshman class was enrolled under the early admissions program, a decrease of 2.2 percent from the previous class.

Regular decision applications also increased, closely miroring the early decision application rate.

The preliminary application count for the complete admissions cycle for the Class of 2016 is 37,673, up by about 3.5 percent from the Class of 2015. The University plans to enroll 3,182 freshmen in the coming academic year.

Although potential competitors Harvard University and Princeton University reinstated early decision programs for the Class of 2016, Cornell expanded its early decision pool, Locke said.

While Cornell’s applicant pool grew this year, Yale University’s and Columbia University’s early admissions applicant pools decreased dramatically after Harvard and Princeton’s decisions. Yale’s applicant pool decreased from 5,257 to 4,310 for the Class of 2016, while Columbia’s applications dropped from 3,274 to 3,088.

Other Ivy League schools were largely unaffected by this change in Harvard and Princeton’s policies. Dartmouth College applications increased to 2,904 from 2,753 for the Class of 2015, the University of Pennsylvania’s applications decreased to 4,526 from 4,571 for the Class of 2015 and Brown University’s applications increased to 2,904 from 2,753.

49.4 percent of the applicants admitted through early decision were women, an increase of 2.7 percent from the past admissions cycle. 20.7 percent of admitted students have parents or grandparents who are Cornell alumni, an increase from 20.3 percent for the Class of 2015.

Similar to previous years, New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were the top five states represented in the Class of 2016’s accepted early decision pool.

Sam Bromer ’16, a high school student admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences from Scarsdale, N.Y., expressed much relief over his acceptance to the school.

“I was ecstatic, I put a lot of work in and Cornell was by far my first choice. It was a big relief when I decided to apply [early decision] to Cornell and got in,” Bromer said.

Locke said the full profile for the Class of 2016 will be released after April 1 when the admissions cycle is completed.

http://www.cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2012/01/26/early-decision-applications-cornell-rise-class-2016

Virginia Received 28239 Applications to Class of 2016

2012-01-23T06:45:00.000-08:00

The University offered admission to 3,187 early action applicants Friday, or about 27 percent of all early applicants, in its first year offering a non-binding early admission option.
Early action applications made up about 41 percent of the record-breaking 28,239 total applications the University received this year, an 18 percent increase from last year’s number.
Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts said in an email that the University’s early action plan, as well as the University’s increased recruitment and outreach efforts, contributed to the surge in applications.
Through early action, applicants who applied by the Nov. 1 deadline will be informed by Jan. 31 whether they were accepted, deferred to the regular application pool or declined admission. The students who were accepted to the University were already notified last week.
Some 3,150 applicants were deferred to the regular application cycle and 4,909 applicants were declined admission. The enrollment goal for the Class of 2016 is 3,360, according to a University press release.
“The goal [of offering an early action option] was to provide the most flexible early admission option possible for high school students,” Roberts said.
Unlike the early decision option, which the University discontinued in 2006, early action is nonbinding. Applicants have until May 1 to commit, which affords students the chance to compare financial aid offers from other schools.
Students who apply early action undergo the same review process as those applying regular decision and have no greater chance of admission, Roberts said.
“We simply took the most impressive and deserving applicants in the pool,” he said. “We did not have a target or quota that drove our decisions.”
Of those offered admission, the average SAT score was 2,119 on a 2,400-point scale, up 53 points from the average score of those offered admission last year.
Laura Austin, a senior at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas who received an offer of admission Friday, said she is grateful for the flexibility the University’s early action plan provides.
“Hearing back from U.Va. and knowing that I’ve been accepted is fantastic … [but] I can also keep my options open, so I can evaluate all the different aspects of the colleges and take the financial packages into consideration,” Austin said. In April “I will have more information that I can decide from, and I think I’ll make a more informed decision — a decision that I’ll be really happy with.”

http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2012/01/23/admissions-sees-record-numbers/

MIT Received 18084 Applications to Class of 2016

2012-01-22T05:19:00.000-08:00

MIT, based in Cambridge, cut its direct marketing to potential applicants by about 40 percent to eliminate students who weren't likely to be admitted based on their PSAT score, said Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions. MIT sought a smaller "but highly appropriate pool," he said. The school, which doesn't accept the Common Application, received 18,084 applications for this year. Last year it admitted less than 10 percent of applicants.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/18/bloomberg_articlesLXYGZL0D9L3501-LY0MB.DTL

Georgetown Received 20,050 Applications for the Class of 2016

2012-01-20T14:25:00.000-08:00

Over 13,000 regular decision applications from Georgetown hopefuls flooded the Office of Undergraduate Admissions this winter, and pending finalization of data, the university expects a record 20,050 applications for the Class of 2016.
This year's record numbers mark a 4.2 percent increase from last year's pool of 19,228 total applicants. Earlier in the admissions cycle, the university also saw a record 6,750 early action applications, up 1.4 percent from 6,658 applications to the Class of 2015.
"I think when we look back at this year we'll see, for lack of a better term, that we probably got a little bigger market share of the top students," Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Charles Deacon said.
Each of the four undergraduate schools experienced a significant spike in applications this year. According to early estimates, the College received roughly 12,000 applications, up 2.5 percent from last year; the School of Foreign Service received 3,600 applications, up 5.6 percent; the McDonough School of Business drew 3,100 applications, up 5.5 percent; and the School of Nursing and Health Studies received 1,200 applications, up 4.3 percent.
Deacon stressed that Georgetown has not consciously made any changes intended to boost its application numbers and thereby decrease its acceptance rate.
"We're definitely not aiming for 30,000 applications," Deacon said. "How would you be able to do what I call a ‘holistic admissions process?'"
Despite this year's jump, Deacon and the admissions committee expect application rates to plateau in future years because of shifting demographics. According to Deacon, the population of potential applicants had been growing for about 15 years, but the trend has leveled off.
"This appears to be a peaking out year," he said.
Out of the roughly 20,050 total applications received this year, 6,833 came through the early action program. In December, Georgetown admitted 1,012 students to the Class of 2016, 100 fewer students than were admitted early last year, bringing the early action acceptance rate down to 14.8 percent from last year's rate of about 16 percent.
Georgetown, one of the few universities in the country that has a lower acceptance rate for its early pool than its regular decision pool, had an overall acceptance rate last year of 18 percent.
According to Deacon, many top schools, such as the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, lock in nearly half of their freshman class during the early round of applications. Harvard, which reinstituted its early action option this year, accepted 21 percent of applicants from its early pool, a number much higher than its overall acceptance rate of under 7 percent.
According to Deacon, Georgetown is more selective during the early application process.
"We only accept the best students early," he said.
Deacon added that the admissions office expects the surge in applications to be accompanied by an increase in the yield rate, the percent of accepted students who decide to attend Georgetown. Last year's yield rate of 48.5 percent marked an increase over previous years, which had fluctuated between 42 and 47 percent.
"This year we might get a 50 percent overall yield rate, which we haven't done since we started competing with the other top schools," Deacon said.

http://www.thehoya.com/mobile/news/application-numbers-soar-for-class-of-2016-1.2746499

Northwestern Received 31,991 Applications for Class of 2016

2012-01-20T06:10:00.000-08:00

Evanston, Ill. - For the ninth consecutive year, applications to Northwestern University have reached a new high, the school announced Wednesday. At 31,991, total applications for the class of 2016 are up by 3.5 percent, a release from Northwestern said.

This follows a 15.2 percent increase in early-decision applications, from which a record 814 students, or approximately 40 percent of Northwestern’s Class of 2016, already enrolled in December, the release said. A total of 2,450 applied early.

The record 40 percent of the Class of 2016 enrolled at Northwestern via early admission compares with 33 percent of the Class of 2015 and 28 percent of the Class of 2014.

The 31,991 applications received this year are almost double the number Northwestern received in 2005 (16,228), and the 15 percent increase in early-decision applications for the Class of 2016 follows a 26 percent increase the year before.

Additionally, the release said, this school year Northwestern also produced the second highest number of Fulbright grant recipients among the nation’s research institutions, according to a ranking published last fall in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Fulbright winners, who currently teach, conduct research or study in countries around the world, represent every Northwestern undergraduate school as well as the law and medical schools.

Admissions officials now are poring over regular-decision applications to select the remaining approximately 1,225 students who will make up next year’s freshman class.

“We’ve had an extremely successful year in attracting a very strong pool of high-quality applicants,” Christopher Watson, dean of undergraduate admissions, said. “The Northwestern name increasingly is known both in the United States and internationally. Now our staff will be making difficult choices as we make our admissions decisions.”

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/education/northwestern-university-evanston-freshman-incoming-class-2016-applications-record-high-20120118

Yale received 5.8 percent more applications for class of 2016

2012-01-20T04:39:00.000-08:00

Yale received 5.8 percent more applications for admission this year and will likely see a drop in the percentage of students it accepts in the spring, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeffrey Brenzel said in a Thursday email to the News.

The number of applications to the Class of 2016 increased to 28,870, up from 27,283 for the Class of 2015. The Office of Admissions expects the number of admitted students to remain about the same as last year’s total of 2,109, Brenzel said, which would result in Yale’s lowest admit rate ever — below 7 percent.

While the other Ivy League schools that have reported application numbers thus far — Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania — have experienced drops in their number of applicants this year, applications to both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University jumped by 1 percent and 7 percent respectively. Harvard and Princeton have yet to release their application numbers.

Brenzel said because universities use different recruitment strategies, disparities in the number of total applications do not provide much insight by themselves.

“Year-to-year fluctuations in total application counts have little meaning in themselves,” Brenzel said in the email.

This admissions cycle represents the first time in four years that Yale, Harvard and Princeton have all offered early admissions policies. Last month, Yale posted the lowest early admissions acceptance rate in the Ivy League, 15.7 percent, even though the number of early applicants decreased 18 percent from last year.

With the high overlap of applicants to Yale, Harvard and Princeton, Brenzel has said he anticipated the drop in the number of early applicants, but he said administrators did not know what to expect for Yale’s total application count.

“There are simply too many possible causes for application count changes to say what effect the change in the early admissions landscape had on total applications,” he said.

Three college admissions experts and guidance counselors interviewed said they expected the number of Yale’s applications to rise in line with a national rise in college applicants, despite Harvard and Princeton’s early admissions policies this year, and said the trend will likely continue in the future.

Jon Reider, a college guidance counselor at San Francisco University High School and a former admissions officer at Stanford, said Yale’s growth in applicants is “perfectly normal.” He added that he thinks a lower admit rate in the spring will entice more admitted student to accept Yale’s offers of admission.

“What continues to strike me is the ability of students and families to say, ‘Oh, I know how many students Yale usually takes, but I’m going to try to get in anyway,’” Reider said. “The power of the dream is so strong that the numbers don’t convince them to not apply. And that’s the human story behind these numbers.”

Reider added that the combined influence of “the dream” of attending a top-tier university, the amount of marketing conducted by elite schools and the “self-reinforcing frenzy” of the admissions process all make continued application growth at prestigious universities “sustainable.”

Regular applicants to Yale College will be notified of their decisions in early April.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/jan/20/number-of-applications-jumps/

Dartmouth recevied 23,052 apps.for class of 2016

2012-01-20T04:35:00.000-08:00

Although some institutions, including Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, have reported a decrease in applications for the Class of 2016, Dartmouth admissions officers estimate a 3 to 3.5 percent increase this year, with a record 23,052 applications processed for early and regular decision applicants combined, according to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris.

The College intends to accept roughly 2,100 students — approximately 9 percent of applicants — making this “the most selective year we’ve had in terms of the admissions process,” Laskaris said.

The applicant pool has grown by approximately 25 percent in the past two years, according to Laskaris.

The College has already offered admission to 465 students in the early decision process. Laskaris said admissions officers were impressed by the “unusual strength” of the early decision pool this year, which led them to accept more students than they have in previous years, she said.

“By taking a few more in early, we recognized we would put pressure on the regular decision process,” Laskaris said.

Admissions officers have already started to consider methods, including alumni-sponsored events and Dimensions of Dartmouth, to compel regular decision students to accept Dartmouth’s offer of admission, she said.

The recent return to early action programs by both Harvard University and Princeton University eliminated a portion of Dartmouth’s regular applicant pool, as more students “have already made up their minds” and chosen other institutions, Laskaris said. The “modest growth” in applications was expected, she said.

Several peer institutions experienced dramatic changes in the number of applications they received this year.

The total number of applications to Columbia University decreased by 8.9 percent, following a record-breaking 33.4-percent increase in applications last year, Jessica Marinaccio, dean of undergraduate admissions at Columbia University, said in an email to The Dartmouth.

The University of Pennsylvania saw a 1.7-percent drop in overall applications, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian, while the number of applications to Yale University rose by 5.8 percent, according to the Yale Daily News.

Other Ivy League institutions have not yet published application numbers.

Stanford University application rates experienced a 7-percent increase, according to The Stanford Daily. Duke University saw a 6-percent increase in applicants, while Northwestern University saw a 3.5-percent increase, according to the institutions’ student newspapers.

The demographics of Dartmouth’s Class of 2016 will likely be “comparable” to the Class of 2015, Laskaris said.

“It won’t be significantly different from what we saw last year,” she said.

The average composite SAT score of the Class of 2016 is 2080, reflecting a slight increase over last year’s composite of 2068, Laskaris said in an email to The Dartmouth.

Trends among applicants for the Class of 2016 include attendance at virtual schools and participation in online courses, according to Laskaris. Students’ tendency to take classes supplementing their high school curricula may present a new challenge for admissions officers, especially “when it comes to evaluating letters of recommendations from teachers that students haven’t physically met in a classroom,” she said.

The number of students applying for financial aid — which has amounted to approximately two-thirds of applicants in the past — is expected to remain consistent or grow slightly this year, according to Laskaris. The deadline to apply for financial aid is Feb. 1.

To reduce the stress students may be experiencing, the Admissions Office plans to continue its tradition of sending likely letters to “stand-out students,” Laskaris said.

The first batch of “likely letters” will be sent in early February and will give applicants a clear indication that they will likely be admitted if they continue performing at the same level, she said.

“There are some students whose files immediately rise to the top in terms of academic and personal achievements and who strike us as exactly the kind of students we’d like to see at Dartmouth,” she said.

Applicants will receive official notification of their admissions decisions online at around 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on March 29, according to Laskaris.

http://thedartmouth.com/2012/01/20/news/apps

Duke Received More Than 31,500 Applications for Class of 2016

2012-01-19T14:20:00.000-08:00

Durham, NC - More than 31,500 high school seniors have submitted applications for admission to Duke University this year, eclipsing last year's record by 6.2 percent, or more than 1,800 applications.
This marks the fifth year in a row in which the number of applications has set a record. Last year, the school received 29,724 applications for admission, which at the time was a 10 percent increase over the previous record. The number of applicants to Duke has increased by 55 percent -- more than 11,000 applications -- in the last four years alone.
"We're pleased to see this level of interest in Duke," Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag said. "What's perhaps most gratifying is the wide range of backgrounds and places our applicants are applying from; more than ever our applicant pool spans the country and the world."
The current number of high school seniors applying to be part of Duke's Class of 2016 is 31,565. Of that number, 25,616 have applied to the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences (a 4.6 percent increase over last year), while 5,949 have applied to the Pratt School of Engineering (a 13.8 percent increase). The final number of applicants is expected to increase slightly as applications submitted by mail are received.
California again provided the largest number of applicants, with North Carolina second and New York a close third, followed by Florida and Texas. The greatest growth among applicants in recent years has been among students from the West Coast and from overseas, with China first among foreign countries in the number of applicants, followed by Korea and Canada.
The applicant pool is fairly evenly divided between males and females. Among students of color, the greatest increases were among Latino students and students of Asian descent. Admissions decisions will be made available to applicants online in early April.
In November, more than 2,600 students -- a 20 percent increase from the previous year -- applied to Duke through the Early Decision process and 648 students were admitted, both of which were also record numbers. Those applying through Regular Decision will be vying for about 1,060 spaces in the Class of 2016.
"We're excited to be reading the applications of our Regular Decision applicants," Guttentag said. "These are exceptional young women and men, and it'll be a challenge choosing among them."
Guttentag expects the incoming class to have slightly more than 1,700 students.

http://today.duke.edu/2012/01/regulardecision

Columbia reported an 8.9 percent decrease in applicants for class of 2016

2012-01-19T06:13:00.000-08:00

Overall applications to CC and SEAS decreased by 8.9 percent this year, following last year’s record-setting 33.4 percent increase.

Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science received 31,818 applications for the class of 2016, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jessica Marinaccio said in a statement.

If Columbia were to accept the same number of students this year as it did last year, the admit rate would increase from 6.9 percent to about 7.5 percent.

“Columbia has seen increases in application volume in past years and has become increasingly selective as a result. This, however, has never been our primary goal,” Marinaccio said in the statement.

Last year’s record increase was widely attributed to Columbia’s move to the Common Application. Marinaccio noted that in the two years since switching to the Common App, applications increased by 21.5 percent overall, which she said is consistent with the 10 to 25 percent two-year increases seen by other colleges that made the switch.

“Our application numbers this year appear to be normalizing to a size consistent with this trend and at a level that continues to indicate strong student interest,” Marinaccio said.

She added that Harvard University’s and Princeton University’s adoption of early admission programs this year likely contributed to the decrease in applications to Columbia. Early decision applications to CC decreased by seven percent this year, although SEAS saw a 12 percent increase in early applications.

Ethan Edwards, CC ’15, agreed that Harvard and Princeton’s early application programs were likely partially responsible for Columbia’s application decrease. Edwards also speculated that the economy could be a factor, considering Columbia’s high price tag.

“I would guess the decline would be due to the economy, and I think that, as it shows that effect, it’s kind of tragic,” Edwards said.

The only other Ivy League school that has released overall applications numbers this year is the University of Pennsylvania, where applications fell by 1.7 percent, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Several students, though, said that the drop in applications does not say much about Columbia, either positive or negative.

“I don’t care at all about it,” Elias Dagher, CC ’15, said. “Whatever school you go to, if you learn something, it’s good.”

Jeremy Budd and Ben Gittelson contributed reporting.

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/01/18/cc-seas-applications-down-nearly-9-percent

Applications to Penn Drop 1.7% for Class of 2016

2012-01-18T04:49:00.000-08:00

Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Freshmen applications for admission to the University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League school in Philadelphia, decreased by 1.7 percent.
Applications fell to 31,127 for the class that will enter later this year, admissions Dean Eric J. Furda said today in an e-mail.

Penn had seen applications jump 40 percent in the past three years combined, Furda said. The decline this year may be a result of more schools offering early admission plans, he said. Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey, reinstated early admissions for this year after a break of several years.

Last year, freshman applications climbed to all-time highs at the eight Ivy League institutions in the northeastern U.S.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/17/bloomberg_articlesLXY9A207SXKX01-LXYE1.DTL

Stanford or Harvard/Yale/Princeton/MIT, or Others?

2012-01-16T08:23:00.000-08:00

When this article was first published on CC, a lot of details were left out. The reason was that I wanted to see any critique or additions to my original post. Obviously the math part of the article may be very complicated to most people and most comments were not critical. Some of the details cannot be obtained as the information for this PIE problem is not complete. After so long it may be the time for me to give more details and let people reproduce the results.
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Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT, or HYPSM, are the main five schools that steal prefrosh among each other. As many evidences from the school newspaper or admission official’s comments show that they don’t really concern to lose profrosh to schools other than the other HYPSM. This analysis was based on the data of Class of 2014 when Harvard and Princeton did not have SCEA. Therefore, the results could be different for the Class of 2016 as all HYPS have SCEA now.
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For Class of 2014, Stanford accepted 2340 students totally, 40 students were accepted from the waitlist[1]. Its total freshman enrollment was 1672[2]. The yield was 71.5%, which means that 668 students were accepted but did not matriculate.
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For those 2340 students accepted [3]:

398 students were also accepted by Harvard;

359 accepted by Yale;

430 accepted by Princeton;

304 accepted by MIT;

630 accepted by UC Berkeley
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For those 668 non-matriculates [4]:

32% went to Harvard, or 214 cross-admits went to Harvard;

16% or 107 to Yale;

14% or 94 to Princeton;

13%, or 87 to MIT.
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For cross-admit yields [4]:

Stanford: Harvard=38%:62%;

Stanford: Yale=50%:50%;

Stanford: Princeton=63%:37%;

Stanford: MIT=60%:40%.

Finally, for the detailed distribution of the cross-admits:

For those 398 Stanford/Harvard cross-admits, 214 enrolled at Harvard. This means there were total of 214/62% = 345, or 87% of Harvard/Stanford cross-admits, went to either Harvard or Stanford. And hence there should be 131 enrolled at Stanford. The rest of cross-admits, total of 56, enrolled at somewhere else. Direct head-to-head competition: Harvard/Stanford=214:131, or 38% went to Stanford and 62% went to Harvard.
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Similarly for those 359 Stanford/Yale cross-admits, 107 enrolled at Stanford, 107 enrolled at Yale, 145 enrolled at somewhere else. Direct head-to-head competition: Stanford/Yale=107:107, or 50% went to Stanford and 50% went or Yale.
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For those 430 Stanford/Princeton cross-admits, 160 enrolled at Stanford, 94 enrolled at Princeton, 176 enrolled at somewhere else. Direct head-to-head competition: Stanford/Princeton=160:94, or 63% went to Stanford and 37% went or Princeton.
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For those 304 Stanford/MIT cross-admits, 131 enrolled at Stanford, 87 enrolled at MIT, 86 enrolled at somewhere else. Direct head-to-head competition: Stanford/MIT=131:87, or 60% went to Stanford and 40% went or MIT.
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In summary, for those 2340 admits, Stanford admitted 214/0.62+107/0.5+94/0.37+87/.4 = 1016 HYPSM cross-admits, or 43% of total admits were HYPSM cross-admits. Of those cross-admits, Stanford enrolled 131+107+160+131 = 529 and lost 487 students to HYPM, its HYPSM cross-admits yield was 52%.
.

There were 668-487 = 181 admits went to schools other than HYPSM. None of schools other than HYPM did Stanford lose more than 2% of non-matriculates or 13 students per school[4] – those schools including ALL other Ivies, Chicago, Caltech, Duke, Rice and UCB, etc, for all the reasons that could be.

References

[1] http://mathacle.blogspot.com/2010/08/yield-to-admit-ratio-yar-for-class-of.html

[2] http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/2010.html

[3] http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/10/08/financial-aid-deficit-may-persist-four-to-five-years-hennessy-tells-stanford-faculty/

[4] http://facultysenate.stanford.edu/2010_2011/minutes/10_07_10_SenD6388.pdf

Stanford Sets Record With Almost 37,000 Freshman Applications for Class of 2016

2012-01-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Stanford University received an estimated 36,744 applications for freshman admission -- a record -- as the school's athletics success drummed up attention.

Applications rose 7 percent from 34,348 a year earlier, Bob Patterson, director of admissions, said today in an e-mail.

Stanford, near Palo Alto, California, admitted 7.1 percent of its applicants for the 2011-2012 academic year. Admissions officials had speculated that the tough competition to win a seat combined with reinstated early acceptance programs at Harvard University and Princeton University might have deterred some students from applying to Stanford, Patterson said today in an interview.

"It's a little more than we anticipated," Patterson said. "Stanford did very well in football and Andrew Luck was a leader for the university."

Luck, the Stanford Cardinals quarterback and a two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up, is considered a top National Football League prospect.

Stanford, which opened in 1891, counts among its alumni Herbert Hoover, the 31st U.S. president; Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google Inc., and U.S. Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/13/bloomberg_articlesLXR71A0YHQ0X01-LXR9Q.DTL

Early Admit Rates for the Class of 2016

2011-12-21T10:16:00.000-08:00

1.) MIT (EA) 11.3%

2.) Stanford (REA) 12.8%

3.) Georgetown (EA) 15.0%

4.) Yale (SCEA) 15.7%

5.) Chicago (EA) 17.6%

6.) Harvard (SCEA) 18.2%

7.) Brown (ED) 19.0%

8.) Columbia (ED) 20.4%

9.) Princeton (SCEA) 21.1%

10.) Duke (ED) 24.5%

11.) Rice (ED) 24.9%

12.) Penn (ED) 25.4%

13.) Dartmouth (ED) 25.8%

14.) Vanderbilt (ED) 31.3%

15.) Cornell (ED) 32.5%

16.) Northwestern (ED) 32.8%

MIT admitted 680 students from early applicants for the class of 2016

2011-12-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

Of those 6,008 early applicants, we admitted 680 students. They represent some of the best and brightest stars of our future. We are honored to welcome them to campus, where they will join the similarly accomplished, diverse, generally excellent community of students who already call MIT home. Our Early Action admits come from 46 states and dozens of countries, representing over 500 high schools all across the world. Though they all do different amazing things - math and music, oceanography and origami, art and athletics, cosmology and cooking - they are all united by their love of science and technology and their desire to deploy them to make the world a better place.
We deferred 3,731 applicants. These students will be considered afresh in Regular Action. For more information on how our Early vs. Regular and deferral process works you can read my post from last year on the subject.
In our review and committee process, there were 1,308 students to whom we were not able to offer admission this year. These students are exceptionally talented, intelligent individuals, but because of the highly selective nature of our process, we did not believe we would be able to admit them this year, and we wanted to let them to know as soon as possible. We wish all of these students the best of luck in the rest of their college admission process.
The balance of the applicants - 289 - either withdrew from our process before we issued decisions or had incomplete applications and were not able to be considered.
We recognize it's a lot of work for all of you to apply to MIT. We appreciate it. It's an honor to be entrusted with this part of your lives. We try to do what's best by MIT, and what's best by you. And for all the fun we sometimes have on the blogs, we take our work very seriously.
Again, congratulations to the newest members of the Class of 2016. I'll be closing comments on this post to focus the conversations on the open threads for admitted, deferred, and not admitted students.
All best, everyone, and happy holidays.

http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/mit-early-action-decisions-now-available-online

Yale Accepts 675 Early Applicants to the Class of 2016

2011-12-16T12:13:00.001-08:00

Yale admitted 675 of the 4,304 early applicants for admission to the class of 2016, marking a 15.7 percent admissions rate for early action candidates, according to admissions statistics released to alumni interviewers. Of the early applicant pool, 2,394 students have been deferred for regular decision and 1,180 were denied admission.
The 15.7 percent early acceptance rate marks an increase from last year's 14.5 percent early admission rate and the 13.9 percent acceptance rate for the class of 2014.
Yale accepted 50 fewer students than Princeton and 100 fewer than Harvard in this admissions cycle, the first in four years that all three schools have had early action policies.
The breakdown:

Total applicants: 4,304
Number of applicants accepted: 675 (15.7 percent)
Number of applicants deferred: 2,394 (55.6 percent)
Number of applicants rejected: 1,180 (27.4 percent)
Number of incomplete/withdrawn applications: 55

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/dec/16/yale-accepts-675-early/?cross-campus

Princeton offers early action admission to 726 students for Class of 2016

2011-12-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

Princeton University has offered admission to 726 students from a pool of 3,443 candidates who applied through single-choice early action for the Class of 2016.
Princeton's undergraduate admission office mailed notification letters to students Dec. 15, and the decisions were available to applicants via secure online access on the same day.
This is the first year since 2006 that the University has offered an early application round for prospective students whose first college choice is Princeton. The University's early action program requires applicants to apply early only to Princeton, and not to other early programs, but does not require them to decide whether to accept Princeton's offer until the end of the regular admission process in the spring.
"We are thrilled with the academic quality of the accepted students and the range of talents they presented to the committee," Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said. "In this first year of early action, we received a broad and deep applicant pool, which was one of our goals in deciding to return to an early program. Each application was reviewed carefully and individually, and we had to make some difficult decisions. The accepted early action applicants represent between 31 and 36 percent of the total number of students we expect to admit this year."
Of the students accepted through early action this year, 10 percent are international students, and 37 percent are U.S. students from diverse backgrounds. Fifty percent of the prospective students are men, and 50 percent are women. They represent 30 countries and 42 states, plus the District of Columbia.
Fifty-six percent of the admitted students come from public schools, and 10 percent are the first in their families to attend college. Thirteen percent of the admitted students are sons or daughters of Princeton alumni. Twenty-three percent of the admitted students indicated they want to study engineering.
Sixty-four percent of the early action students applied for financial aid, which under Princeton's groundbreaking "no-loan" policy provides students who qualify for aid with grants that do not need to be repaid.
Candidates deferred during the early action process will be reconsidered during the regular decision application process. Candidates must apply under regular decision by Jan. 1 and will receive notification of their decision by early April. About 100 of this year's early applicants requested to be moved to the regular decision schedule before early action decisions were made.
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S32/39/75S56/index.xml?section=topstories

Harvard College Admits 772 Early Applicants to the Class of 2016

2011-12-15T05:59:00.000-08:00

Harvard College announced Thursday that it has accepted 18 percent of the 4,231 early applicants to the Class of 2016. These 772 students mark the first group to be admitted early since the College eliminated its early admission process four-years ago.
“Their academic, extracurricular, and personal promise are remarkable by any standard, and it will be exciting to follow their progress over the next four years and beyond,” said Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 in a statement.
The Office of Admissions deferred 2,838 applicants, roughly two-thirds of applicants, to be considered in the regular application pool. It rejected 546 students.
When Harvard eliminated the early admissions program four years ago, Harvard officials said that they aimed to make the College’s admissions process more equitable, suggesting that the early program provided an advantage for students of more privileged backgrounds. But this year’s group is the College’s most diverse pool of early admits to date, and its ethnic makeup is on par with the current freshman class, according to a University statement.

Fitzsimmons has previously remarked that the early admission pool was of a “very, very high” quality. He said last month that his office set a particularly high bar when determining which students to admit.
“Given increases in our overall applicant numbers over the past few years to nearly 35,000 last year, the Admissions Committee took great care to admit only those we were certain would be admitted in Regular Action,” Fitzsimmons said in a statement.
Last week, Stanford admitted 755 of 5,880 early applicants. Numbers at most of Harvard’s peer institutions have not yet been released.

Though admitted, successful early applicants are not required to commit to Harvard until May 1, the same date students admitted through regular admission must indicate whether or not they plan to matriculate.
“Admitted students will hear a great deal from us over the months ahead,” said Director of Admissions Marlyn E. McGrath in a statement. “We want our admitted students to be fully informed about Harvard, as they make their decisions about which of the many fine colleges to which they have been admitted provides the best match for them at this important time in their lives.”

Decision emails will be sent to applicants after 5 p.m. Eastern time, according to the admissions office website.
—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/12/15/Admissions-Early-2016/

Seven hundred and seventy-two students have been admitted to the Harvard College Class of 2016 through the Early Action program, which was reinstated this year after a four-year absence.
“Their academic, extracurricular, and personal promise are remarkable by any standard, and it will be exciting to follow their progress over the next four years and beyond,” said William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid.
The Admissions Committee admitted fewer students than in the most recent years of Early Action, when between 813 and 902 were admitted from applicant pools that ranged from 3,869 to 4,214, slightly fewer than this year’s 4,231.
“Given increases in our overall applicant numbers over the past few years to nearly 35,000 last year, the Admissions Committee took great care to admit only those we were certain would be admitted in Regular Action,” said Fitzsimmons.
The admitted group is more diverse ethnically than any previous early cohort and is comparable with the current freshman class. Although it is difficult to make precise comparisons to previous years because of changes in federal requirements concerning collecting and reporting race and ethnicity information, 9.6 percent of admitted students this year are African-American, compared with 7.2 percent the last time Harvard had Early Action. There was a similar increase for Latinos (9.9 percent vs. 7.9 percent) and Native Americans and Native Hawaiians (1.7 percent vs. 1 percent), and a slight decrease for Asian Americans (22 percent vs. 23 percent). The current freshman class is 19 percent Asian American, 10 percent African-American, 10.2 percent Latino, and 1.7 percent Native American and Native Hawaiian.
It is still too early to determine the socioeconomic composition of the admitted group because many students have not yet submitted financial information.
“Preliminary information such as requests for application-fee waivers indicates that there could well be more economic diversity than in previous early cohorts,” said Sarah C. Donahue, director of financial aid. “We stand ready to help families that require financial assistance, including those that might be interested in a variety of financing options.”
Admitted financial aid applicants will be informed of their awards as soon as they complete their forms. All applicants to Harvard, Early or Regular (Jan. 1 application deadline for March 29 notification) have access to Harvard’s new Net-Price Calculator (NPC), a simple, one-page application available on the NPC website that provides an estimate of a family’s eligibility under Harvard’s generous need-based financial aid program.
Families with annual incomes of $65,000 or less and normal assets are no longer required to contribute to their children’s educational expenses. Those with incomes from $65,000 to $150,000 pay on a sliding scale up to 10 percent of annual income, and there is also need-based aid available to families with incomes greater than $150,000. Home equity and retirement funds are not considered in the calculations, and students are no longer required to take out loans. More than 60 percent of Harvard students receive need-based financial aid and receive grants averaging more than $40,000.
Applicants were notified of the Admissions Committee’s decisions on Dec. 15. In addition to the 772 admitted students, 2,838 were deferred and will be considered in the Regular Action process, 546 were denied, 25 withdrew, and 50 were incomplete. Early Action at Harvard is nonbinding for admitted students, who are free to apply to other institutions and need only reply to Harvard by May 1, the National Common Notification Date.
“Admitted students will hear a great deal from us over the months ahead,” said Marlyn McGrath, director of admissions. Faculty, staff, undergraduate recruiters, and alumni/ae will use phone calls, emails, and regular mailings to reach admitted students with information about Harvard. Many Harvard clubs will host local parties during the winter holidays and in April. All admitted students will be invited to Cambridge on April 21-23 for the Visiting Program.
“We want our admitted students to be fully informed about Harvard, as they make their decisions about which of the many fine colleges to which they have been admitted provides the best match for them at this important time in their lives,” she added.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/12/early-action/

Brown admitted 556 of early decision applicants to class of 2016

2011-12-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

Brown's early decision admission rate dropped to 19 percent this year, as the University yesterday admitted 556 out of 2,919 early decision applicants to the class of 2016, according to the Admission Office.
The early decision acceptance rate fell slightly from last year's 20 percent rate. This year's applicant pool was the largest in the past three years. Last year, 2,796 students applied early decision, and in 2009, 2,847 did.
A plurality of students — about 31 percent — declared interest in the social sciences, followed by about 26 percent in the life and medical sciences and about 23 percent in the physical sciences. Engineering was the most popular intended concentration, with 46 students — roughly 8 percent of admits — listing it as their field of interest.
This year marked the second admissions cycle since the University formally approved the School of Engineering in 2010. Last year, Dean of Admission Jim Miller '73 told The Herald the University hoped to see an increase in the number of engineering applicants.
In the U.S., the most admits came from New York, where 83 students were accepted. California followed, with 78 admitted students. Regionally, about 21 percent of admits came from New England, followed by about 15 percent from New York and about 14 percent each from the Mid-Atlantic and California.
International students comprised roughly 11 percent of early decision admits. The most international admits hailed from China, with 13 students — or about 21 percent of international admits — accepted. Canada, the United Kingdom and India followed with nine, seven and six admits, respectively.
The University has in recent years attempted to increase its presence in India and China by forming educational partnerships and organizing both a Year of India and Year of China.
Admission statistics for the Program in Liberal Medical Education, whose students are grouped with other early decision applicants, were not provided. PLME students can opt out of the binding application if denied from the PLME program but accepted into the College by specifying this preference on their initial application.
About 58 percent of students admitted come from public high schools, while about 35 percent come from private schools.
Regular decision applications are due Jan. 1. The University usually aims to have a freshman class of about 1,500 students, The Herald has previously reported.
Charlie Figueroa '16, who was admitted as a PLME student, said he was very surprised to have been admitted. When decisions came out, his mother had the computer open and a video camera to record his reaction.
"I screamed the f-bomb in front of her, which I've never done," he said. Figueroa, who plans to study biology and theater arts and performance studies, said he was drawn to Brown because it seemed very "community-oriented" and because of its LGBT culture.
"It'll be wonderful," he said.

http://www.browndailyherald.com/web-update-with-increased-number-of-applicants-early-acceptance-dips-to-19-percent-1.2682760#.Tule-NU8eTY

Duke Accepts 648 Early Decision Applicants to the Class of 2016

2011-12-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

Durham, NC - On Wednesday evening, 648 high school seniors will find out that they are the first members of Duke University's Class of 2016.

This year, a record 2,641 students applied under Duke's Early Decision program, a 20 percent increase over last year's number. Those who apply via this process know they want to attend Duke and commit to enroll at the university if they receive an offer of admission in December.

Students admitted through Early Decision this year will represent 38 percent of next fall's incoming class, which is expected to include 1,705 students. Of the 648 admits, 526 will enroll in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and the remaining 122 will enroll in the Pratt School of Engineering.

New York, California, North Carolina, Florida and Texas are the states with the greatest representation among students admitted through Early Decision. States with the largest increases in admits are Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri and South Carolina.

Students of color comprise 30 percent and international students make up 7 percent of those admitted, both unchanged from last year.

Last year, the university accepted 645 students through Early Decision. Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag said the interest in Early Decision continues to grow, and as a result the process is more competitive than in previous years. The percentage of Early Decision applicants who were accepted decreased from 29.2 percent in 2010 to record low 24.5 percent this year.

"My staff and I had a particularly challenging time this year choosing students from such a robust pool of applicants," Guttentag said. "We wanted to be responsive to the many students who were willing to commit to Duke, while leaving enough room in the class for Regular Decision applicants. Most high school seniors aren't quite ready to make a commitment so early, so we try to strike a healthy balance between Early Decision and Regular Decision."

Guttentag said the increase in Early Decision applications is due in part to Duke's commitment to need-based financial aid. More than 46 percent of those admitted expressed an interest in financial aid.

"We're pleased that so many families are willing to make the Early Decision commitment even as they recognize that they will require financial aid. We're glad that they understand the commitment the university has to making Duke affordable for students from every background. We realize it's a bit of a leap of faith for them, and our financial aid office does a great job of making it all work out," Guttentag said.

Starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, students will be able to receive their decisions online by visiting a website. Last year, more than 200 students received their decisions in the first minute, and more than 600 received their decision in the first 10 minutes. Within 12 hours, almost half of the students admitted had responded online with their intent to enroll.

Guttentag said the majority of places in the Class of 2016 would continue to be filled by Regular Decision applicants. Last year, Duke received more than 26,400 Regular Decision applications, a record, and this year will likely be as selective to fill the remaining 1,057 spaces in the class, he added.

Of those who applied via Early Decision this year, 693 were deferred to the spring Regular Decision process.

The deadline for Regular Admission is Jan. 2, and final decisions will be made available to students on March 30.

http://today.duke.edu/2011/12/earlydecision

Dartmouth accepts 465 early decision applicants to the class of 2016

2011-12-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

The College offered 465 students early decision admission to the Class of 2016 out of the 1,800 applications received, according to a College press release. This marks a 21-student increase, as 444 students were accepted early into the Class of 2015 from an 1,759-person applicant pool. This rise in accepted students is due to the strength of the early applicant pool, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
The 465 students, who were notified of their acceptance via an online notification system at 3 p.m. on Dec. 9, will comprise approximately 40 percent of the class. The Class of 2016 will include approximately 1110 students, which is comparable to the Class of 2015 size, she said
The slightly higher number of admitted students will make selecting the remaining class during the regular decision process more difficult for the Admissions Office, but “was an opportunity to admit through early exceptional students,” Laskaris said.
Approximately 600 students were deferred while roughly 700 were denied admission, Laskaris said.
“We denied a few more students than we have before, as the overall strength and quality of the pool has grown,” Laskaris said. “Because of this we have decided to deny admission more than defer because of the level of competition they will face in the regular pool.”
Admitted students are more diverse than in past years, Laskaris said. Approximately 24 percent of early admits are students of color, compared to 22 percent of early decision admits for the Class of 2015.
“One place where we saw noticeable increase is in terms of international students,” Laskaris said. “There was real strength in this pool. Roughly eight percent were admitted — last year it was about five percent.”
The mean SAT score of admitted students was 2146, marking a slightly higher score than last year’s average, 2144, according to Laskaris. The Class of 2014's mean score was 2150.
“We have a strong group in terms of testing,” she said. “But beyond numerical credentials we were struck by substance.”
Thirty-one percent of accepted students are currently slated to be the valedictorians of their high school school, while 21 percent are slated to be the salutatorians. Eighty-eight percent of students admitted early are in the top 10 percent of their classes. These figures represent a slight uptick from students admitted through the early decision process to the Class of 2015, as 25 percent of students were valedictorians, 9 percent were salutatorians and 87 percent were ranked in top 10 percent of their classes.
Dartmouth experienced a 2.6-percent increase in early decision applications this year. While the rise in applications reflects a five-year growth trend at the College, many other Ivy League schools experienced a decrease in early decision applicants, as Harvard University and Princeton University reinstituted their early admissions programs this year.
Harvard and Princeton’s returning early admissions programs did not affect the number of students Dartmouth chose to admit through early decision, Laskaris said.
“When we approach the early decision process it’s an opportunity to admit and bring to Dartmouth students who we think are exceptional and the kind of students we want to enroll at Dartmouth,” she said. “We need to strike that right balance. We know that the regular decision pool is larger than the early pool. Every year it’s finding that balance point.”
The University of Pennsylvania, which received 1.3 percent fewer early decision applications from last year, admitted a lower percentage of early applicants in order to allow for more flexibility in regular admission, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian. Admissions officers expect that students who applied early to Harvard and Princeton will apply to Penn in the regular decision round, Dean of Admissions Eric Furda said in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Early admission statistics for other Ivy League institutions have not yet been released.

http://thedartmouth.com/2011/11/30/news/admissions

Stanford admits 755 students through early action program to the class of 2016

2011-12-09T21:04:00.001-08:00

Stanford emailed acceptance letters Friday to roughly 13 percent of the high school students who sought admission to the Class of 2016 under the university's early action program.

The 755 students were selected from a pool of 5,880 candidates. Last year, the university received a record 5,929 applications.
"We continue to attract an exceptional number of highly competitive candidates and we are honored by the interest they have shown in Stanford," said Richard Shaw, dean of admission and financial aid, in a statement.
Students who are accepted through the early action program may consider their other college options before responding, according to the university.
Stanford notified program applicants of its decisions -- admitted, denied or deferred to the regular decision round -- by email Friday afternoon.
The university said it reserves most of the spaces in its freshman class for students who apply under its regular decision program. More than 28,000 students are expected to apply for admission by Jan. 1.
Students admitted under either program have until May 1 to accept Stanford University's offer.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19513900

Columbia Accepted 605 ED Students to the Class of 2016

2011-12-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

The number of Early Decision applications received by Columbia dropped 5.68 percent this year, a decrease that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions said was impacted by changes in the early application policies of “peer institutions.”
This year, Harvard University and Princeton University restored their early admission programs, which allow prospective students to apply early to only one college.
“The decrease in applications was influenced by decisions made by our peers, Harvard and Princeton,” Jessica Marinaccio, director of undergraduate admissions for Columbia College and SEAS, said. “But I’d say it was only slightly affected, and not a very large influence.”
Both universities’ programs fall under the category of “early action,” which is non-binding. Early action was previously eliminated at both schools in September 2006, a decision that benefited financially-disadvantaged applicants who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to consider the financial aid offers of other universities.
At the time of publication, Columbia’s admissions office declined to provide information about the number of students accepted or deferred.
This year Columbia received 3,088 ED applications, a decrease from last year’s 3,229 applications, of which a record low of 19.6 percent were accepted. Despite the decrease in applicants, a statement from the admissions office said that the ED pool “increased in terms of academic quality indicators” and that the percentage of the class filled through ED—around 40 percent—remained consistent.
“CU is becoming more and more selective and that’s wonderful news, but the hardest part is saying no to students,” Marinaccio said. “We don’t revel in saying no to so many.”
Barnard College received 561 applications, a 2 percent increase from the previous year’s 550 applications. Harvard and Princeton received 4,245 applications and 3,547 applications, respectively.
Admissions officers and employees of the University’s financial aid department mailed Early Decision acceptance letters to students of the Class of 2016 in a ceremony on Thursday afternoon. Assembled on College Walk before a red Toyota Sienna holding ten USPS boxes of admissions envelopes, the enthusiastic group of about 30 cheered and sang “Roar Lion Roar,” Columbia’s fight song.
“We spend so much on this process and to come to together and have this ceremonial gesture is incredibly exciting,” Marinaccio said. “The great thing about Early Decision is that when we admit a student we know that they’re coming here. Tonight at 5 p.m. they’ll find out they’re admitted to their first-choice university. That anticipation is very exciting.”
Josh Cohen, of Atlanta, found out Thursday that he would be a member of Columbia Engineering’s Class of 2016.
“I still don’t know that it has quite sunk in yet,” he said. “I was so nervous, and I was all shaken right up to the notification. I kind of had to sit down for a bit.”
Ivan Romero, CC ’16, said that he would remember yesterday as a defining moment in his life.
“It was just kind of like my four years summed up into five seconds of my heart beating faster than it has ever,” he said.

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2011/12/09/cu-receives-fewer-ed-applicants-2016