Early decision applications up at peer schools

Early decision applications at Penn rose 18.3 percent this year, an increase similar to those of most peer institutions.

The Office of Admissions received an all-time high of 4,557 submissions mostly due to “a changing admissions landscape” and stronger recruitment efforts, according to Dean of Admissions Eric Furda.

Other Ivy League universities have seen comparable success. Early decision applications increased by almost 8 percent at Columbia University and 12 percent at Dartmouth College.

Bucknell, Northwestern and Vanderbilt Universities have seen the largest jumps so far — all between 20 and 30 percent.

When Harvard and Princeton Universities terminated their early admission programs in 2007, they contributed to the surge in applications at other institutions, according to Director of Hernandez College Consulting Michele Hernandez.

Applications first rose at schools that use nonbinding early action programs so students could still be in the running for Harvard and Princeton later in the year. As a result, she continued, applications at early action schools nearly doubled, so acceptance rates dropped.

“After watching many top classmates get rejected from these schools, students realized that it made more sense to play the strategy game and apply ED if they wanted an Ivy or top college,” she wrote in an e-mail.

“The process has been more favorable to us recently,” Furda concurred.

However, early applications fell at Brown University — which received 3 percent fewer applications this year — and remained consistent at Yale University.

This article has been corrected to reflect that the increase in ED applications was 18.3 percent, not 17 percent.

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