Cornell Received 37,673 Applications for Class of 2016

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