Princeton received 3,791 early applications for class of 2017

3,791 students applied for early admission to the University, about a 10 percent increase over the 3,443 who applied last year.
The University may still accept more applications because the Office of Admission instituted a flexible deadline due to the complications posed by Hurricane Sandy, according to University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua.
The deadline for submitting an application was initially Nov. 1, but the University extended it to accommodate applicants affected by the storm that hit the east coast the week of the deadline.
Last year, the Office of Admission accepted 726 of the applicants, or 21 percent. The target class size for the Class of 2017 is 18 fewer students than recent class sizes due to the over-enrollment of the Class of 2016 by 49 students.
Last year’s over-enrollment was partially a result of  the University's reinstated early action program, which began last year and made the yield difficult to predict. The University had a binding early decision program between 1996 and 2006 but stopped the practice to attempt to make the admission process more equitable.  
Yale received 4,514 early applications this year, and Harvard has not yet released its numbers. The other five Ivy League schools use a binding early decision process. At Dartmouth, the early applicant pool decreased by more than 12 percent, the first time the number of early admission applicants declined in six years.

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2012/11/17/31858/