A handful of top universities around the nation have recorded banner years in freshman applications, including a 42 percent increase at the University of Chicago, a 19 percent rise at Princeton and a 17 percent increase at the University of Pennsylvania. The number of applications to Chicago has doubled since 2006, and the number to Harvard topped 30,000 for the first time.
“It’s a migration of high school seniors to strong institutions, strong brands,” said John Latting, dean of undergraduate admissions at Hopkins. “Either they are prepared to pay, or they are confident that the aid is out there for them.”
Some admissions experts say the increase simply means each senior is applying to more schools. Each new group of seniors applies to a larger number of schools, “with the hope of hitting the merit-money jackpot,” said Sally Rubenstone, senior adviser at the Web site College Confidential. “Acceptance rates plummet, which, in turn, terrifies the next crop of seniors, who then apply to an even longer list of schools.”
I’ll be interested to see if apps are up at mid-tier private colleges.
I read somewhere that applications at both Yale and Williams were down, so I don’t know if this story is accurate across the board.
The “common application” process now accepted at most schools also makes it easier to apply to more colleges, although of course that means increased costs for applicants as well.
No. 2: “The ‘common application’ process now accepted at most schools also makes it easier to apply to more colleges, although of course that means increased costs for applicants as well.”
Yes–increased costs all the way down the line: college admissions offices must increase staff (or work existing staff harder) to cope with all the follow-up that increased inquiries, then apps, require.
And it can get harder to calculate yield, and the yield number is of course more important than the number of total apps. A top college, though, can expect to have a high yield %.
For a mid-tier college, and perhaps esp. for a private mid-tier college, the whole business of predicting yields becomes tricky, dangerous, and different every year. In fact, normally the whole college community, not just the folks burning the midnight oil in the admissions building, watches these numbers with concern.
And of course brand is affected by how you do things, and so the relation of quality / quantity must also be kept in mind. Make your quota this year–but with too many poorly prepared students–and word will get around (that so-and-so got into such-and-such college), thereby affecting yields next year.