<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/education/21college.html?_r=1[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/education/21college.html?_r=1</a></p>
<p>also large rises at Middlebury and Bowdoin (10%), Haverford (14%) and Pomona (20%)</p>
<p>Ahhh!!! Scary!</p>
<p>Scary is right!</p>
<p>“‘I was surprised, and I was pleased, and I don’t have an explanation,’ said Greg Pyke, senior associate dean of admissions at Wesleyan, in Middletown, Conn.” </p>
<p>Explanation: Barack Obama (Commencement speaker).</p>
<p>Discuss.</p>
<p>If it’s because of Obama, I don’t even want to imagine the rise at Columbia and the University of Chicago.</p>
<p>this sucks. :(</p>
<p>People who choose a school just because of a commencement speaker probably aren’t the deepest/brightest in the bunch, anyway…</p>
<p>(Is it obvious I’m looking for a way to interpret this as a good thing?)</p>
<p>Yeah this kind of sucks but fangsup15 is right. It must be even worse for the Columbia and University of Chicago people cuz he actually went there!</p>
<p>IDK, this makes me even more anxious, I really do hope I get in, I haven’t sent in any other apps and I don’t really want to…</p>
<p>Reading this article today was like reading my rejection letter.</p>
<p>^^^ Awww 
It depressed me too… Keep your head up everybody!</p>
<p>explanation: need-based grants</p>
<p>Here’s the Wesleying article on it:
[Wesleying:</a> Wesleyan Early-Decision Applications Up 40%](<a href=“http://wesleying.blogspot.com/2008/11/wesleyan-early-decision-applications-up.html]Wesleying:”>Wesleying: Wesleyan Early-Decision Applications Up 40%)</p>
<p>It says they will still take the same proportion of the class from ED (so it will be more competitive for those of us who applied ED). But maybe that student who said that is wrong?</p>
<p>It also says it could be due to Wes’ rise in the music scene, which, like an Obama commencement address, seems like a pretty shallow reason to pick a college and doesn’t bode well for the people who applied for that reason.</p>
<p>Other threads on CC:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/601541-early-decision-applications-up-colleges-spite-economy.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/601541-early-decision-applications-up-colleges-spite-economy.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/597475-early-decision-applications-up-despite-financial-meltdown.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/597475-early-decision-applications-up-despite-financial-meltdown.html</a>
(No new information, really – just thought your anxious minds might like something to focus on).</p>
<p>And I agree – that was my rejection letter in news form. I was worried already.</p>
<p>Yeah. Not to sound too defeatist, but [<em>braces self</em>] I’m ready for the worst. 40% is huge; it goes against all logic.</p>
<p>If the RD apps go down by a proportionate percentage though, it shouldn’t hurt us too much, right??</p>
<p>God I’m so scared.</p>
<p>come on guys you no that this is the best thing that could ever happen, its such a rush now, its like sky diving or playing leap frog towards a cliff or getting dangerously close to a woodchipper or skipping through a mysteriously abandoned field in a recently war torn former satelite eastern european country, you hope your going to survive but there is also the potential for disaster, applying early decision to the school you love only to find out that 40% more people than last year did the same and you might be really screwed, Sophocles couldn’t have written it better, THIS IS AMAZING!!! THIS IS WHAT LIFE IS ABOUT!!!</p>
<p>Mmmm, I have to say I kind of disagree. I really don’t need this process to be any more suspenseful.</p>
<p>wesdad, it got to be MGMT. Dad won’t understand. I almost never buy periodicals but just had to have the Spin issue, then I had to search you tube like being hit by meteorite.
If everyone wants to live in westco, that would be the proof.
QTV interview they made it sound so much fun and easy to graduate with flying colors.
Intro meets interview, anyone who loves dog would fall in (my case motherly) love with the boy.
Flying_pig, don’t worry (or should?) No matter what their initial motive is if kids are serious enough to do ED, must have been visited or researched crazy and loved to be there as much as you do.</p>
<p>I know a girl who was considering Wesleyan “because, you know like Santogold went there.”</p>
<p>The scary thing is she has the grades and test scores and ec’s to be competitive for admissions.</p>
<p>"I know a girl who was considering Wesleyan “because, you know like Santogold went there.”</p>
<p>The scary thing is she has the grades and test scores and ec’s to be competitive for admissions."</p>
<p>And the scarier thing is that Wesleyan doesn’t have any sort of “Why Wes?” supplemental essay.</p>