Large applicant pools and low admit rates at our nation’s top universities have made 2014-15 the most competitive and unpredictable college admissions year ever.
For selective colleges, especially, the numbers are daunting. NYU reported over 60,000 applicants, marking the eighth year in a row with record-breaking numbers. Cornell, Brown, and Yale all reported some of their highest applicant pools to date. Harvard admitted fewer students than ever before: 5.3% of its total applicants.
Yet there is a silver lining: for students who plan ahead, there are strategies to make admission to their top college choice more likely. As our results confirm, planning strategically pays off. Ninety-five percent of our students were accepted to college early this year, and 83% overall have been admitted to their first or second choice school. For our results, please click here.
In order for colleges to sift through these large pools of qualified students, admissions offices need not only to look at a student’s credentials, but also at the student’s likelihood of attending. This presents an opportunity for students prepared to focus on a favorite college early in the admissions process.
Admissions offices must be careful to admit the correct number of students to be sure their university’s entering freshman class is neither too big nor too small. To estimate likely “yield”, the number of admitted students who will choose to attend, many colleges track a student’s demonstrated interest. If we admit him, will he matriculate? This factor is most important when committees review the non-binding admissions pools—Early Action, Rolling, and Regular Decision.
Admissions committees want to see evidence of a student’s commitment and enthusiasm. Did the student visit campus? Did the student have an interview? Was the student in touch with any professors? Schools have even gone so far as to track whether or not a student has opened e-mails sent from the admissions office.
In most cases, colleges have chosen to admit more of those students they consider most likely to attend: those who apply Early Decision 1 or 2 or Single Choice Early Action. Recognizing this trend, more and more students are indicating a first choice college in the fall of their senior year and applying under one of these options. In the 2014-15 admissions cycle, top colleges and universities filled a large portion of their classes with Early Decision admits: Penn 54.4%, Duke 48%, and many others between 42-47%. Princeton had a Single-Choice Early Action admit rate of 19.9% and Harvard’s was 16.5%. Conversely, most of these colleges had single-digit admit rates in the regular pool, for example, Princeton’s was 4.3% and Harvard’s was 3.1%.
Colleges are not shy about noting the advantage of a binding early application. The Dean of Admissions at Duke sends prospective applicants a clear message about the benefits of an Early Decision application. “Myth: The Early Decision process is more competitive than Regular Decision. Fact: While some schools make this claim, at Duke we appreciate that we are your unquestioned first choice. There’s an advantage in applying early to Duke—last year we admitted 25% of our Early Decision candidates and only 10% of our Regular Decision candidates. There are students for whom applying Early Decision can make all the difference.”
As yield becomes more unpredictable with these huge applicant pools, we are seeing larger waitlists. This year, NYU waitlisted 9,000 students, Princeton offered 1,207 students the waitlist for a target class of 1,310, and Penn waitlisted 2,400-2,500 students, but expected only to offer admission to between 75 and 200 of them.
The bigger the yield, the lower the number of admission offers extended to waitlisted students. Colleges typically use their waitlist to fulfill their institutional needs. As enrollments come in, admissions offices keep track not only of the number of students enrolling, but also of the types of students. Do they have enough engineers? What is the male/female balance? In order to create a well-balanced class, admissions offices use the waitlist to fill in the gaps. This makes it difficult for a student or a counselor to predict a student’s chances of admission from a waitlist.
In the last two years, we have seen some colleges going to their waitlists before May 1, the universal response date. Colleges have begun this outreach in order to shore up their yield and decrease their number of waitlist offers; for example, the University of Chicago did this starting on April 18, 2015. By admitting certain waitlisted students before May 1, colleges are able to include them in their regular yield numbers, instead of the number admitted from the waitlist. College rankings, such as those generated by the U.S. News and World Report, reward colleges for presenting higher yields and lower admit rates.
Acceptance to the top colleges in this country is getting more challenging and complicated. At Marks Education, we conduct ongoing research and professional development to stay informed about the changing admissions landscape across the country and around the world. Our students are diverse: they include outstanding scholars, recruited athletes, budding artists, aspiring entrepreneurs, and those just beginning to discover their own interests and potential. Our goal is to offer tailored, strategic advice to each student and family to highlight “best fit” colleges or universities.
For more information about how our strategic advice has led to success for this year’s Seniors, please click here
