Applications at Elite Colleges Slow

By Janet Lorin - Jan 19, 2012 3:01 AM GMT+0700

Applications for freshman admission to elite U.S. colleges such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University are slowing after years of record increases.

The number of students applying to New York-based Columbia fell 8.9 percent to 31,818 for the 2011-2012 year after rising 33 percent last year when the school joined the Common Application. MIT had 1 percent growth, the smallest increase in seven years, while the University of Pennsylvania had a 1.7 percent drop after a 40 percent jump in the past three years combined.

Athletics programs, early-admission policies, competition for seats and other school-specific issues may be having a greater effect on student applications rates, counselors and admissions deans said. High school seniors are getting the message that it can be next to “impossible” to win a seat at these schools, said Jon Reider, head of college counseling at San Francisco’s University High School.

“There is a finite number of teenagers who have the credentials to make themselves competitive for schools like this and, at a certain point, that level is hit,” said Reider, a former admissions officer at Stanford University. “The supply of kids flattens out.”

Penn admitted 12 percent of applicants last year and Columbia 6.9 percent. One reason for the decline in Penn’s applications to 31,127 is that more colleges have early admission programs, Eric J. Furda, dean of admissions, said in an e-mail. Penn, based in Philadelphia, also required an additional essay this year, which might have had a small impact, Furda said.

Early Admissions

Fellow Ivy League schools Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey, reinstated early applications after a break of several years.

Early admissions at Harvard and Princeton probably affected Columbia’s application volume, Jessica Marinaccio, dean of undergraduate admissions, said in a statement.

MIT, based in Cambridge, cut its direct marketing to potential applicants by about 40 percent to eliminate students who weren’t likely to be admitted based on their PSAT score, said Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions. MIT sought a smaller “but highly appropriate pool,” he said. The school, which doesn’t accept the Common Application, received 18,084 applications for this year.

“Were not trying to encourage increased numbers just for the sake of it,” Schmill said in an interview. “We’re happy given that applicant pool is as diverse and talented as ever. For us that is a terrific outcome.”

‘We Are the 6%’

Applications for freshman admission are often taken as a proxy for a school’s popularity. Many colleges, including those in the Ivy League, buy names of prospective students who score high on standardized tests and send them marketing brochures and e-mails. The boost in applications makes the colleges appear more selective. A Harvard student group sells T-shirts sporting the slogan “We are the 6%,” in reference to the undergraduate college’s admission rate last year.

The Common Application, which Columbia joined last year, is used by more than 400 colleges. It’s an online form students can use to apply to multiple schools.

“Given the increased accessibility associated with the Common Application, schools initially accepting it have typically seen a two-year increase in application volume of 10 to 25 percent,” Marinaccio said in the statement. “Our application numbers this year appear to be normalizing to a size consistent with this trend and at a level that continues to indicate strong student interest.”

Last Year’s Record

Last year, freshman applications climbed to all-time highs at the eight Ivy League institutions in the northeastern U.S. The other schools in the league plan to release their applications numbers in the coming weeks.

Freshman applications to Stanford University, near Palo Alto, California, rose 7 percent to a record of almost 37,000, the school reported last week. Stanford may be benefiting from its location in Silicon Valley, connection to the technology world, orientation toward Asia and because it attracts top students who are interested in national-level intercollegiate sports, Reider said.

Georgetown, Stanford Gain

Stanford senior Andrew Luck, the Cardinal quarterback and a two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up, has garnered national attention and is considered a top National Football League prospect. The women’s soccer team won its first national championship in December.

Duke University, which last year offered seats to 13 percent of applicants, may be the beneficiary of some competitors having admission rates in the single digits. Freshman applications to the school in Durham, North Carolina, increased by 6.2 percent to more than 31,000, according to Christoph Guttentag, dean of admissions.

“While sports may have a nominal impact on applications at Duke, it says something about selective college admissions when a 13 percent admit rate looks more possible,” Guttentag said in an interview.

Georgetown University’s applications increased by an estimated 4.2 percent to about 20,500 the year, said Charles Deacon, dean of admissions. The school in Washington didn’t do anything differently this year, said Deacon, adding that he could “easily” increase applications and move Georgetown into the 30,000 range by buying more names, joining the Common Application and significantly increase international travel and recruitment to China and Korea.

“We are not doing any of these things because they don’t mesh with our philosophical position about the appropriate way for the appropriate students to apply to us,” Deacon said in an interview. “It allows us to fill our class appropriately and still give adequate time and attention to each candidate.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Janet Lorin in New York jlorin@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lisa Wolfson at lwolfson@bloomberg.net.