Top Colleges See More Apps Despite Recession

March 30th, 2009

According to The New York Times, many of the top colleges and universities in the nation are reporting that they’ve received significantly more applications than last year – despite the recent economic downturn. Although it’s encouraging to see so many high school students going for the gold, this increased turn-out translates to a lower acceptance rate and possibly more challenging admissions race.

Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), for instance, has seen a record-high of 29,112 applications this year but will only admit seven percent of all applicants – a one percent drop from last year. Similar statistics can be seen with other top schools: Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island) had 21 percent more applications; Columbia University (New York City), 13 percent; and Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut), 14 percent. (Though these colleges did not release their anticipated acceptance rates for this year, students will start to find out as of tomorrow when they start e-mailing decision letters to applicants.)

Stanford University (Palo Alto, California) also experienced a 20 percent increase in applications from last year, and expects to admit an all-time low, although they would not release an exact prediction as of yet.

– Genevieve M. Blaber

Entry Filed under: College Admissions, General, News