Here we go! First Ivy to release the predictable news

Parents Forum
41

The kids I know who applied to the top, need only schools, with financial need, claim that their ED admissions came with a financial package that was within a rounding error of what their online calculators claimed they would be. (i.e. on the nose, within a $100, etc.)

So if you run the numbers-- and you can live with those numbers- ED is a fine deal for your family. If you run the numbers and CAN’T live with those numbers, or think you might get a better deal by applying to a bunch of merit schools, then don’t apply ED.

Not sure why this is problematic.

42

Fwiw, there is a difference running NPC from various sites and rebuilding the Federal EFC model using the official formula. The NPC are just as good as the people who built the model and their interpretation of the rules. College Confidential had one (or still does) and its first iterations missed the mark.

Also, the definition of EFC tends to take different angles, although it should mean one thing, namely the FAFSA result.

43

That is obviously true – and perhaps because of the erroneous insistence by many that only full pay should play! The reality of college admissions is that one benefits from “sticking out” be it for superior academics, great athletics, overcoming handicaps, and for responding to institutional needs that include targeting low-income students.

With the smaller number of applications, the chances that are well-crafted application gets some traction and lands an adcom champion is better in the early rounds. Students with zero EFC might be the biggest beneficiaries in terms of upgrading their chances. For others, the possibility of rejecting the financial aid package simply replaces them in the tsunami of RD applications. And that is exactly where they’d be without the ED application!

ED/SCEA is all about strategic positioning. Expressing a clear choice is important for schools. And filling their slots with acceptable candidates as early as possible is paramount to most schools, and especially the highly selective ones.

It is a bit like going to a brunch early!

44

http://news.yahoo.com/whats-toughest-college-united-states-hint-not-harvard-214925023.html

45

Harvard University: 37,305 applicants; 5.3 percent acceptance rate

Columbia University: 36,250 applicants; 6.1 percent acceptance rate

Yale University: 30,237 applicants; 6.49 percent acceptance rate

Princeton University: 27,290 applicants; 6.99 percent acceptance rate

Brown University: 30,397 applicants; 8.5 percent acceptance rate.

University of Pennsylvania: 37,267 applicants; 9.9 percent acceptance rate

Dartmouth College: 20,505 applicants; 10.3 percent acceptance rate

Cornell University: 41,907 applicants; 14.9 percent acceptance rate

46

TEN YEARS AGO

IVIES Overall Early Round Estimated Regular Decision
2009 Admit Applied % Admit Applied % Admit Applied %
Brown 2,557 16,911 15.12 571 2,046 27.91 1,986 14,865 13.36
Columbia 2,312 18,125 12.76 578 2,157 26.80 1,734 15,9689 10.86
Cornell 6,621 24,452 27.08 1,072 2,572 41.68 5,549 21,880 25.36
Dartmouth 2,171 12,756 17.02 397 1,171 33.90 1,774 11,585 15.31
Harvard 2,102 22,796 9.22 885 4,213 21.01 1,217 18,583 6.55
Penn 3,916 18,824 20.80 1,169 3,420 34.18 2,747 15,404 17.83
Princeton 1,807 16,510 10.94 593 2,039 29.08 1,214 14,471 8.39
Yale 1,880 19,451 9.67 704 3,933 17.90 1,176 15,518 7.58
Total Ivies 23,366 149,825 15.60 5,969 21,551 27.70 17,397 128,274

Stanford 2,426 20,195 12.01 867 4,644 18.67 1,559 15,551 10.03 -

See more at: http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/ivy-league-admission-statistics-2009/#.dpuf

47

Very interesting that WashU received the second-most apps (only behind big and varied Cornell) out of all those elite privates a decade ago.

Did they have a big marketing campaign back then (relative to those other schools)? Was it the “hot” school (like Vandy now and Duke another decade before) back then?

The internationalization of the applicant pool hasn’t helped WashU vis-a-vis most of those other elite privates, certainly.

48

WashU/WUSTL?

49

Are The figures in post #44 for just regular decision or for the entire application cycle (including ED/EA/SCEA or whatever the school offers?

50

? Yes, WashU=WUSTL.

51

http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/04/2015-admission-stats-across-ivy-league Has anyone posted this yet?

52

These statistics are from last year: http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/ivy-league-admission-statistics-overall-2018/.

Nevertheless, it appears over 10 years, the volume of applications to the “Ivies Plus” category rose 38.87%. Of course, there’s the question of yield, and students admitted to multiple Ivy plus colleges.

I like the early round. As a thought exercise, what would happen if there weren’t an early round? Well, there would be waitlist action through the summer. Some students, particularly athletes and the significantly hooked, would get in everywhere. The early round serves to settle the hooked candidates into one college, particularly those that went ED. That means they aren’t submitting 15 more applications in the regular round.

I do not like the havoc the Common App creates. There are students claiming to have applied to 26 schools, or more, on these threads. I have friends whose kids with really strong records from public schools applied to 18 a few years back. I think that depresses the results for everyone else in their schools, because selective colleges do read applications by high school.

53

Actually that is the growth between the Classes of 2018 and 2012. The full decade would show a higher increase.

54

WashU is what it has always been called / referred to. “WUSTL” is some weird CC acronym. It’s as odd as UIUC to refer to the U of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana - never Urbana-Champaign.

55

“I think that depresses the results for everyone else in their schools, because selective colleges do read applications by high school.”

Is that your belief or is that sourced?

56

It never dawned on me that alums were only doing a good job in terms of college selection…if they promoted their own Ivy as the best place on the planet.

I mean really…is that true? The parents went to these schools a generation ago. Maybe their kid wants to major in something that has better opportunities at another Ivy or, God forbid, a school,that isn’t an Ivy. Maybe their kid wants to be close to skiing…much easier at Dartmouth than Penn. Maybe their kid wants to live in a rural location…much easier at Cornell and Dartmouth than at Penn Or Columbia.

57

I asked about WashU because you wrote “Very interesting that WashU received the second-most apps (only behind big and varied Cornell) out of all those elite privates a decade ago.” and WashU was not listed in the tables I posted.

As far as the question, a decade ago most everyone on CC who was polled about getting the most marketing material would have answered … WUSTL or WashU. The schools that relied on heavy marketing were easy to spot, and WashU was in the company of Tulane. The new title belt since then must go to Chicago that has been relentless in reaching to all corners of the world, and with great repetition.

And, not surprisingly, the results must have been worth the effort.

58

It probably would be hard to find meaningful sources for that belief. In a way, it might make sense to think that colleges will weigh students from the same HS against each other. Further, it is easy to agree that selective schools are seeking to increase the diversity at their school, be it through race, SES, and geographical distribution. That is one part.

On the other hand, there enough accounts of particular schools going deep in the well and accepting many students from the same HS. How deep would Stanford or Cal go in extending offers to students at Harken, Paly, or Gunn? How deep do the Ivies go in the pool of the known boarding schools such as Deerfield, Exeter, Choate, et al? How deep do EC schools go at Stuy or Bronx?

My take as someone who has measured the growth of applications at many schools is that the common “numerator” has not changed much. A very similar number of kids are still accepted. The increase of the rate of admissions is not necessarily a proxy for the difficulty of “certain” students to be accepted. The students who tend to have a real chance of admissions must represent a pretty stable pool with perhaps a very slight increase. And nothing compared to the 50 to 100 growth at many schools In terms of applications.

59

@xiggi, WashU and a bunch of other schools are at the bottom of that 2009 link.

60

@Pizzagirl, first source: Admissions Confidential, by Rachel Toor, about admissions at Duke. Presents her files to committee, by high school.

Another source: http://admissions.tufts.edu/blogs/jumbo-talk/post/the-ed-committee-live-blog/.

http://admitoneblog.org/2011/05/how-does-your-high-school-impact-college-admissions-2/

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/7/7/stairway-to-harvard-span-stylefont-style-italicthis/

I assume that any college with regional admissions officers visiting high schools will place students “in context.”