Ivy League sees early applications rise again

As Ivy League early applications hit record numbers this year, an average of 30 percent of high school seniors who applied early to the Ancient Eight received good news in December. Cornell University and Penn admitted the highest number of early applicants in the Ivy League this year, accepting 46 and 36 percent of applicants, respectively. Harvard University was the most selective of the Ivies, accepting only 18 percent of its 6,095 early applicants. Harvard, as well as Brown University, uses early action -- which is non-binding -- instead of early decision. Harvard also had the smallest increase in early applications, a mere one percent. "We are pleased to see that the hysteria after earliness has seemed to have leveled off," Harvard Director of Admissions Mary McGrath Lewis said. Brown admitted 21 percent of its applicants, about the same rate as last year. Yale University offered spots to 29 percent of its early decision applicants. Dartmouth College and Columbia University both accepted about a third of their early applicants, admitting 33 and 34 percent, respectively. Princeton University's early admissions statistics were unavailable. This year, Penn received 2,851 early applications -- an 11 percent rise from last year -- and accepted 1,033 students. About 44 percent of Penn's class of 2005 will be comprised of early admits. Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson said Penn's sixth-place ranking in U.S. News and World Report is one of the factors behind the increased student interest. Cornell also filled over a third of its incoming class with early admits, offering spots to 1,104 of its 2,425 early applicants. Accepting 587 of its 1,705 early applicants, Columbia filled approximately 45 percent of the spots in its class in the early decision process. Dartmouth's number of early applications grew only about 4 percent from last year, and 377 of the 1,135 people who applied early received spots. Last year, Dartmouth accepted 39 percent -- or 430 students, about 60 more than this year -- of its 1,091 early applicants. Dartmouth Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg explained that the college's desire to reduce the pressure to apply early was one reason behind this year's lower admission rate. And despite Harvard's imperceptible rise in the number of early applications, the other Ivies saw a jump in the numbers. Yale experienced a 17 percent increase, receiving 1,800 applications compared to last year's 1,493, while Columbia received 12 percent more than last year. Eric Furda, executive director of undergraduate admissions at Columbia, attributed some of the increase in early applications to Columbia's adoption of online applications this year. Brown received 5,253 early applications, up 7 percent from 4,924 last year. Director of Admissions Mike Goldberger said this increase was in line with the trend the university has experienced in the last few years. "Two years ago we were under 3,000, and we have seen them grow dramatically" he said. Goldberger said that Brown may consider switching to an early decision policy to control the growing applications in the future but plans to fill approximately 40 percent of this year's incoming class with early admits.