Plunging acceptance rates

UT84321
Fri, 12 Nov 2010 23:38:28 +0000

I think it is primarily driven by people sending so many more applications. Instead of sending 5 applications, people are sending 15. So the number of applicants per school is going up way faster than population of college-bound HS seniors. Certainly the meteoric rise in the number application at UChicago when they shifted to the Common App is consistent with that explanation.

So you get a top kid 4.0/2400/2400 who gets into 4 Ivies. Since she can only go to one, she now turns down three. They have to go to their waiting lists. It creates a cascading musical chairs.

All indications are that ED/EA applications are up noticably this year. That means more people are playing the system, not that there are that many more HS seniors.