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This is an article that appears in this week's Dickinsonian, the college newspaper. Sorry to have to inform you--but maybe you'll be one of the few!
In an event that President William G. Durden ’71 described as “unbelievable,” Dickinson College will be accepting only five or six students off of the waitlist before May 1 for the class of 2012.
Dr. Robert Massa, Vice President of Enrollment and College Relations, said that this is the highest yield Dickinson has achieved “probably since I’ve been here.”
“Last year and the year before we had in the vicinity of 620 freshmen, but we took between 20 to 25 students off of the wait list,” said Dr. Massa. “[But] our deposits (admitted students who agree to attend Dickinson) are running slightly ahead of two years ago and about five percent ahead of last year,” so Dickinson’s use of the waitlist will be much more limited than it has been in the past. As of April 28, 524 students had made their deposit to attend Dickinson.
This number includes 35 international students, compared to 29 last year at this point. Dr. Massa also stated that Dickinson’s financial aid amount is “holding lower than I thought.” Dickinson is still giving out more financial aid than it did last year, “but there’s less than we thought we were going to get.”
Dr. Massa explained that one reason Dickinson is getting more applicants has to do with the nation’s most prestigious schools, such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, getting more applicants. “They’re getting put on large waitlists,” said Dr. Massa, “and they’re not getting in. They’re simply not getting in.”
“We certainly overlap among the best schools in the country,” continued Dr. Massa,” but what happens is that when students aren’t getting into the most selective,” which he defined as schools that accept less than 20 percent of applicants, “they’re applying to those [schools] that are still very selective but a little bit less so, so places like Dickinson, where we’re accepting 40 percent of the students who apply, are benefiting.”
Massa did not give all the credit to other schools, however. He also took note of the fact that Dickinson “is doing well.”
“There’s the knowledge out there that this is a good place; it’s a value; we do something special; we keep pushing that message; and it’s true,” he said.
Dickinson should get a final number for the class of 2012 shortly after the enrollment deposit deadline for first years on May 1. Dickinson will see if it needs to use the waitlist more fully after this deadline. Massa said Dickinson is “anticipating a first year class in the range of 610-620 students.”
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