Preliminary Results – Early Action and Early Decisions – Entering Fall 2008

From: http://hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/resources/early2008statistics.html
Date: Jan. 21, 2008


Preliminary Results – Early Action and Early Decisions – Entering Fall 2008

One of the biggest changes in admissions at highly selective colleges was brought by the elimination by Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia of their early application programs for the Class of 2012. As a result, the majority of observers expected the applicant pool to grow at competing schools.
Most of the schools that have released statistics for Early Action and Early Decision applications report a rise in the number of applications received.

Three Ivy League schools reported reversals in their decrease in the number of SCEA or ED applications received in 2006.

Ivy League

Early Rounds	2012			2011			2010
	Admit	Applied	%	Admit	Applied	%	Admit	Applied	%
Brown ED	555	2,461	22.55	525	2,316	22.67	543	2,379	22.82
Columbia ED	597	2,582	23.12	594	2,429	24.45	583	2,236	26.07
Cornell ED	NA	NA	NA	1,101	3,015	36.52	1,110	2,849	38.96
Dartmouth ED	400	1,429	27.99	380	1,285	29.57	398	1,321	30.13
Harvard	0	0	0.00	859	4,008	21.43	813	3,869	21.01
Penn ED	NA	3,929	NA	1,178	4,001	29.44	1,181	4,120	28.67
Princeton	0	0	0.00	597	2,276	26.23	599	2,236	26.79
Yale SCEA	885	4,888	18.11	709	3,541	20.02	724	4,084	17.73
Total Ivies				5,943	22,871	25.98	5,951	23,094	25.77

©2008 Hernandez College Consulting

A dramatic change was seen at Yale, where the early application volume grew by 38%. Yale received 4,888 early applications this year for the class of 2012 from which the school accepted 885 students. That figure marks a sharp reversal from last fall, when the Single Choice Early Action pool shrank by 13% from the prior year as the school received 3,541 early applications for the class of 2011.

Brown University's accepted 555 of the 2,461 it received for the class of 2012. The 2,461 applications for early decision this year represent a 6% increase over last year 2,316 early decision applications.

Columbia University reported a combined admission rate of 23 percent, a drop from last year's rate of 24 percent fueled by a 5 percent increase in CC applications. Columbia College received 2,162 Early Decision applications, an increase of 6% over last year’s numbers, and admitted 455. The SEAS received 420 applications, an increase of 1% over last year, and sent out 142 acceptance letters. CC accepted 21 percent of applicants and SEAS 33 percent.

Dartmouth received Early Decision 1,397 applications, an increase of 8.7 percent over last year and the largest number of early applications ever. Dartmouth accepted 400 early applicants to the Class of 2012.

Stanford and MIT

Early Rounds	2012			2011			2010
	Admit	Applied	%	Admit	Applied	%	Admit	Applied	%
Stanford SCEA	738	4,551	16.22	750	4,644	16.15	853	4,503	18.94
MIT EA	522	3,937	13.26	390	3,493	11.17	377	3,091	12.20
Total	1,260	8,488	14.84	1,140	8,137	14.01	1,230	7,594	16.20

©2008 Hernandez College Consulting

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology received 3,937 (up from 3,493) early applications last year and accepted 522 for an acceptance rate of 13 percent.

Stanford’s early application cycle was very similar to the last year’s. Stanford accepted 16 percent of its SCEA pool by admitting 738 out of 4,551 applicants.

More Selective Schools

Early Rounds	2012			2011			2010
2011	Admit	Applied	%	Admit	Applied	%	Admit	Applied	%
Duke ED	472	1,247	37.85	504	1,187	42.46	468	1,499	31.22
J. Hopkins ED	439	1,055	41.61	447	997	44.83	364	1,004	36.25

©2008 Hernandez College Consulting

Duke reported a modest increase of 5% as 1,247 applied early from 1,187 in the prior year, but failed to recover from its massive drop in early admissions in 2006. In 2005, Duke had 1,499 applicants.

Larger increases were reported outside the Ivy League. After increasing its Early Action volume by 9.3% in 2006, The University of Chicago set a record this fall with 4,349 applications, up 42% from last year. With 1,133 Early Decision applications, Vanderbilt reported an increase of 41.1%. Georgetown University received 5,925 applications for the class of 2012, an increase of 30% from last year’s 4,573 early applications.

Early action applications to the University of Notre Dame rose to 4,247 this year, up 11.5 percent from last year. Boston College projects about 7,000 early-action applicants this year, up 16% from last year.

Volume of Applications and Change

Volume Applications	2012	2011	Change
Brown ED	2,461	2,316	6.26%
Chicago EA	4,349	3,041	43.01%
Columbia ED	2,582	2,429	6.30%
Dartmouth ED	1,429	1,285	11.21%
Duke ED	1,247	1,187	5.05%
Georgetown EA	5,925	4,573	29.56%
J. Hopkins ED	1,055	997	5.82%
MIT EA	3,937	3,493	12.71%
Notre Dame	4,247	3,809	11.50%
Penn ED	3,929	4,001	-1.80%
Stanford SCEA	4,551	4,636	-1.83%
Vanderbilt ED	1,133	803	41.10%
Yale SCEA	4,888	3,541	38.04%

©2008 Hernandez College Consulting

Statistics by Christian Termont at Economics of Education Research Associates