What should colleges do to manage the increase in apps?

Data10
Mon, 26 Apr 2021 05:17:37 +0000

TomSrOfBoston:

Extreme marketing is only one cause of the increase in applications. In Canada McGill University had a major increase in applications this year:
Quebec CEGEPs +31%
Ontario high schools +37%
Other Canadian high schools +15%
U.S. high schools +40%
Overseas high schools +19%
McGill does minimal marketing.

The large increase in applications that many highly selective colleges experienced this year generally has little to do with marketing. Instead one of the key drivers is a highly selective college being newly test optional, which removes a key barrier that would prevent many students from applying in other admission cycles.

McGill is a highly selective college that went SAT/ACT optional this year, and McGill has made it clear that they plan to require SAT/ACT next year. So I am not surprised to see that McGill big increase in number of applications this year.

In contrast Chicago may do mass marketing, but they are not newly test optional this year, so Chicago did not see a big increase in applications this year… or at least no where near as large an increase as Ivy Plus colleges that are newly test optional. Some specific numbers I listed in another post are below:

Class of 2025 Increase in Number of Early Application Over Previous Year
MIT: +62%
Harvard: +57%
Columbia: +49%
Yale: +38%
Cornell: +36%
Dartmouth: +29%
Rice: +29%
Penn: +23%
Brown: +22%
Duke: +18%
Georgetown: +12%
JHU: +11%
Norte Dame: +9%
Emory: +8%
Chicago: +6%