Urban Ivies prove to be big draw for frosh

Penn, Columbia and Yale each increased their admissions selectivity. Urban universities seem to be the genre of choice for this year's batch of Ivy League pre-frosh. As a result of increased applications, Columbia University in New York City, Penn and New Haven, Conn.'s Yale University have all been able to increase their selectivity this year, with Columbia in the lead. "I think we're seeing that the urban institutions in the Ivy League seem to be leading the way in the past few years," said Columbia Director of Undergraduate Admissions Eric Furda. "Families are finally willing to give us a chance by visiting urban campuses." While Columbia accepted 17.5 percent of last year's applicant pool, the admissions office only sent out acceptance letters to 14.2 percent of this year's pool. Although Penn's 29 percent acceptance rate was the second-highest in the Ivy League this year, Penn also had the second-highest increase in selectivity in the Ivies, accepting two percentage points less of its applicants. Last year, Penn accepted 31 percent of its 15,459 applicants. This month, Penn admitted 4,837 students out of 16,651 applications, the most it has ever received. Yale was the only other Ivy school to see a full 1 percentage-point increase in selectivity. Yale admissions accepted 16.8 percent of its 11,944 applicant pool this year, down from the 17.8 percent acceptance rate of last year's pool of 12,046 applicants. The remaining five Ivy schools reported relatively constant admissions rates. Cornell and Princeton universities and Dartmouth College all saw slight decreases in selectivity this year, while Brown saw a slight increase and Harvard remained the same. Cornell accepted 34.3 percent of its 19,858-person applicant pool, up slightly from last year's 33.8 percent admit rate from a pool of 19,854. Princeton also accepted slightly more applicants this year, admitting 13.1 percent from a pool of 13,006. In 1997, Princeton accepted only 12.9 percent of a slightly larger pool of 13,400. And Dartmouth accepted 21.6 percent of its 10,143 applicants this year, up from last year's admit rate of 21 percent from a pool of 10,643. Brown increased in selectivity by only about 0.2 percentage points this year, admitting 17 percent of students from a pool of 15,500. Last year the Providence, R.I., school accepted 17.2 percent of a pool of 14,898 students. Harvard remained steady in terms of selectivity, accepting 12.3 percent -- the lowest Ivy rate -- of this year's applicant pool of 16,818. Last year, Harvard also admitted 12.3 percent of its applicants, from a slightly smaller pool of 16,594. An article in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education suggests that Columbia may actually take the place of Yale in the ranks of what are considered to be the three most prestigious schools, which also includes Harvard and Princeton. But Furda was hesitant to make any rash predictions. "We are all very strong institutions," he said. "And the numbers change so much from year to year." Although the current data looks promising for Penn and Columbia, both Furda and Penn's Admissions Dean Lee Stetson emphasized that the numbers may change after May 1, when students must notify colleges of their decision to matriculate. Stetson noted that the Penn admissions office saw a 20 percent increase from last year in the number of admitted students who visited campus over the Penn Preview Days, which ended yesterday. "We're being absolutely overwhelmed with visitors," Stetson said. "And they're telling us that an urban education is highly valued."