Ivies see early apps. rise

Harvard and Brown led with big increases in early action applications. After making changes to their early admissions policies that now allow students to apply to more than one school, Brown and Harvard universities both saw dramatic increases in their totals of early applications this fall. Six of the seven Ivy League schools whose numbers are in, including Penn, reported increases in the number of early applications received. Princeton University has not yet released its early decision statistics. Brown's number of early applicants increased by a whopping 58.2 percent, from 2,970 to 4,700, while Harvard's increased by 31.8 percent, from 4,584 to 6,042. Harvard and Brown are the only Ivy schools with a non-binding early admissions policy, meaning that students don't have to commit to attend if they get in. But for the first time this year, "students could apply to other early action schools," said Harvard's Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons said that while some of Harvard's applicant increase can be explained by the new policy, other factors were also involved, including a greater national interest in early admissions programs and a recent influx of talented high school students. "[The increase] probably has something to do with [the policy], but the numbers have been going up pretty steadily over the past five years," Fitzsimmons said. He added that this is not the first time that changes in early admissions policies have affected the number of early applicants. For example, Fitzsimmons said, Harvard saw a 37.9 percent increase in 1994, the same year that Yale, Princeton and Stanford universities made their early application process binding. At Brown, the new early admissions policy is in a trial period so that admissions officers can evaluate its potential benefits, according to Michael Goldberger, Brown's director of college admissions. "I think that we will review [the policy]," Goldberger told The Brown Daily Herald earlier this month. "Some [high school] counselors say it's about time, others say we've created havoc." Goldberger attributed Brown's increase in early applications to the new policy, as well as to improvements in financial aid packages, more interest in applying early and recent reviews in publications like U.S. News & World Report. Penn's 18.7 percent increase in early applications was the third-largest increase reported in the Ivy League, a result that Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson attributed to Penn's rising visibility among high school seniors and the energy on campus. Columbia University saw "an incredible increase in the number of applications," Admissions Assistant Jenny Tansey said. This year's figure increased 18.2 percent. Tansey said the early application number has been increasing over the past four years, attributing the recent rise to lower crime in New York City and the appeal of Columbia's undergraduate core curriculum. Cornell University's figure jumped 11.9 percent while Yale saw a modest 2.7 percent increase. Dartmouth College has yet to finalize its tally, although preliminary numbers appear to be down by about 5 percent, Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg said. Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer Aliya Sternstein contributed to this article.