Bucking trend, Yale's applications dip
Bucking trend, Yale's applications dip
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The number of applications to the class of 2014 fell slightly from last year’s record high, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions announced today.
Approximately 25,800 students have submitted applications, down from the 26,000 applications received for the class of 2013. By contrast, the number of applications to Harvard and Princeton continued to climb this year, by 5 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Jeff Brenzel, Yale's dean of undergraduate admissions, said he expects the admission rate to remain unchanged from last year at 7.5 percent.
Brenzel said Yale's decline, though different from its peers, is not a surprise because Yale has experienced a 35 percent increase in applications over the past two admissions cycles (before this year), whereas Harvard's and Princeton's pools have only grown 27 and 16 percent, respectively, over the same period.
“Our non-binding early admissions program saw continued growth in the quality and academic achievements of all applicants, with increases in the number of low-income and minority candidates,” Brenzel said. The number of male applicants also saw a modest rise this year to 46 percent from 45 percent in the past two years, he added.
Over the past decade, the number of applicants to Yale College has doubled — an unprecedented change Brenzel attributed to financial aid reforms abolishing parental contribution for families earning less than $60,000 annually, the renovation and expansion of campus facilities, and investments in science and engineering.
Regular decisions for the class of 2014 will be released April 1. Admitted students will have until May 1 to decide whether to matriculate.
Comments
None 2 years ago
Well, ain't that nice?
None 2 years ago
Annie Le story hurt, in my honest opinion. Luckily, after that admissions video, I think the app's will increase next year... not that the # really matters.
None 2 years ago
That's a joke, right? Please, please let that be a joke. The admissions video will matter plenty... when it's driving this spring's yield rate into the song-scorched earth. Sure, Annie Le hurt. You know what hurts more, though? People like YOU who think crap like THAT is what this school needs.
Oh, and 16% + 19% = 35%. Don't get it twisted Brenzel.
I mean, even Brown topped 30k in applications. Yale is finally (and sadly, deservingly) falling off the wagon.
None 2 years ago
YY -- That seems judgmental and off-the-mark. It's not as though the Admissions Office can only do one thing at a time.
Maybe I'm ignorant, but my shock is at Brown and Princeton. They are the only ones to see a difference in the THOUSANDS, and positively, too. Why? More people applied to Princeton than to Yale, for example, so can't we predict their admission rate to be a new low?
None 2 years ago
Clearly an indication that the Office of Admissions spent WAY too much time on "That's Why I Chose Yale" rather than drumming up interest from prospective students.
None 2 years ago
Hmmmm ...We may trail all the Ivies (plus Stanford and Duke) in apps received this year, except for the much smaller Dartmouth.
None 2 years ago
If only we had a glitzy gay admissions video to attract the best!
None 2 years ago
Everyone should calm down. When we had exactly the same (essentially) number of applications last year, we were the king of the world. And we had a correspondingly miniscule admissions rate. People get scared by that, so, seeing that Princeton had a higher admissions rate, more people probably applied there thinking that it would be easier to get into, and everyone had the same idea, so they got a massive jump; then next year, things will flip around again
None 2 years ago
hey...
There's are tasteful and funny ways to make a gay joke about the video... but that was not one of them.
None 2 years ago
Stop bashing people when you manage to reveal your own idiocy by adding percentages of growth rather than compounding them. Regardless of direction this correction affects your argument, you still need to think before you speak.
Natural fluctuations will necessarily occur, and cannot be attributed to any one factor, no matter how salient.
None 2 years ago
Hmm, that's a mighty big jump for Brown. The Emma Watson effect, perhaps?
None 2 years ago
OMG...the sky is falling. Yale...second rate? Say it ain't so...
None 2 years ago
How many applications does Yale need to fill a class of what, 1500 or so? You get 25 or 26,000 applicants and think that 30,000 will in any way change the caliber of the final pick? Ridiculous! Only ego, nothing more. Ego would have been better served by winning the Game.
None 2 years ago
Ne sweat pas. Yale's big year was last year, as Levin said. And the quality of the pool is what counts. Also, Dubbya is no longer in the White House, so an Un-Dubbya Effect. Brown may have gotten an Emma Watson Effect, but (checking theivycoach.com) Brown's increase this year (20 percent) was actually less than its increase last year (21 percent), so maybe not a Watson Effect. Princeton got a delayed Brooke Shields Effect, or a Bad Basketball Sympathy Effect.
None 2 years ago
I hardly think a 200-app drop in a year when the total number of applicants went down, and the year a high-publicity murder took place on campus, is anything to fret about.
None 2 years ago
Of many possible reasons, could the news "Danbury High quadruplets get into Yale" is a significant one?
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