Total early decision applications fall across Ivies

Early decision applications are in, and in just a few short weeks, high school students will know whether or not they have been accepted into their first-choice Ivy League university.

The Ivy League as a whole saw a decrease from last year in the number of early decision applications it received. The numbers dropped about 14 percent, from 19,822 to 17,032. These two numbers do not include Cornell, which has not yet released the volume of its applications for the Class of 2008.

Of all the Ivy League schools, Penn had the smallest fluctuation in the volume of applications it received between this year and last year -- an increase of only 1.3 percent. There were 2,106 early applicants for the Class of 2008 and 2,078 for the Class of 2007.

Harvard and Yale were the two schools with the most drastic change in application numbers.

Yale's early decision applications increased by 52.4 percent, from 2,611 to 3,980.

Harvard's applications decreased by more than 47 percent, from 7,615 last year to less than 4,000 this year, according to the school's Web site.

The numbers are likely a result of changes to both schools' early admissions policies that went into effect this year.

For the Class of 2007, Harvard implemented a program known as early action, in which -- unlike early decision -- a student could apply early but was not obligated to matriculate. However, for the Class of 2008, the school reinstituted its binding policy.

Conversely, Yale decided this year to go to early action as opposed to its previous binding system.

Princeton was the only other school to see a considerable fluctuation in the volume of its early applications. The number of applicants decreased by 24.5 percent, dropping to 1,820 this year from 2,413 last year.

Each of the other Ivy League schools that released its early application numbers had an increase or decrease of less than 6 percent.

Dartmouth's early applicant pool grew from 1,216 last year to 1,279 this year -- an overall increase of 5.2 percent.

Columbia's numbers decreased slightly -- only 3.8 percent -- from 2,018 for the Class of 2007 to 1,942 for the upcoming year.

Brown had an increase of 1.8 percent. The school received 1,871 applications last year and 1,905 this year.

With at least 17,032 students applying early decision or early action to Ivy League schools, this process plays an important role in the college admissions process.

Doris Davis, the associate provost for admissions and enrollment at Cornell University, commented on the advantages of the program in an e-mail statement.

"The benefit of [early decision] is that for those students who are admitted, it allows them to 'finish' their college search process early in the senior year instead of having to apply regular decision and wait to receive a decision in the spring," she said.

Penn has announced that it will select approximately 45 percent of its incoming class from the current pool of early decision candidates, Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson said earlier this week.

The University plans to each accept, defer and deny one-third of the applicants.

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