After lull, rise in early applicants

As Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia await the results of their first year without an early admissions program, other universities, including Boston College, already appear to be reaping the benefits. Many universities that kept their early admissions programs noted a significant increase in the number of early applications they've received this year, which some attribute to the loss of the programs at Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia.

Boston College received 6,800 early applications this year for its nonbinding Early Action program, the most in the history of the school and a 13 percent increase from last year's 6,000 applicants. Other universities yielded even higher increases. The University of Chicago saw the most significant change, as the number of early applications grew by 42 percent, according to the Chicago Maroon. Yale's early applications also received a significant boost of 36 percent, as the number of early applications jumped to 4,888 from last year's 3,594, said Yale Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeff Brenzel in Yale Daily News. Georgetown saw an overall increase in the number of early applicants of 36 percent, and Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, and MIT also saw increases in the number of early applications, as reported in The New York Times.

While not all credit these sudden increases to Harvard, Princeton, and University of Virginia's dropped early admissions programs, BC Director of Undergraduate Admission John Mahoney does.

"I do very much attribute [BC's increased number of early applicants] to the decision of Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia to eliminate their early admissions programs," Mahoney said. "There are not a lot of other variables."

When Harvard announced in the fall of 2006 that it was dropping its early admission program, some predicted that many other top-tiered universities would quickly follow suit. Although Princeton and the University of Virginia similarly cut their early admissions programs, many other universities retained theirs.

These remaining early admissions programs may have become an outlet to the 8,000-10,000 students who would have applied in Harvard's, Princeton's, and the University of Virginia's first pool of applicants and instead sought to secure spots at similarly prestigious universities while waiting to apply to the other three through regular admission.

The trend of applying to schools in two waves, first through early application and then through regular admission, began to catch hold in the early 1990s and has since exploded as the number of applicants applying early has increased tremendously through the years, Mahoney said.

In 1990, BC received under 1,000 early applications; by 2005, that number had risen to 6,400."Certainly in the last 10 to 15 years it has become very fashionable to apply early," Mahoney said. "But, originally, early action was for those kids who knew their match."

The number of early applications rose steadily at BC until 2005, until it peaked at 6,400. Then in 2006, the trend reversed for the first time and the number of early applicants dropped to 6000.

Yale also experienced a similar decline in early applications, dropping from 4,084 in 2005 to 3,541 in 2000, according to The New York Times.Mahoney said he believed that students, parents, and guidance counselors were beginning to realize that applying early in a more competitive pool of applicants might not necessarily be advantageous to the students.

He believed that the dip in early applications likely indicated that the process had finally reached an equilibrium and that the University or universities would see a relatively consistent number of early applications in the coming years.

Harvard, Princeton, and University of Virginia's dropping of their early admission programs appears to have disrupted this potential equilibrium."Many of [the universities] saw increases [in their early applications]," Mahoney said. "Had things stayed the same, I'm speculating that we would have stayed relatively flat."

Although the number of early applications has increased, the number of students accepted did not. Mahoney said that BC has maintained a consistent, unofficial ceiling of the number on admitted early action students, and aims to enroll no more than 30 percent of its freshman class accepted through the early admission program each year.

Subsequently, as the number of applications has risen, so has the intensity of the competition.This may be even more daunting for prospective students, as not only the quantity, but the quality of the early applicant pool has increased.

Although early admission at BC has consistently been viewed as more competitive than regular admission, this year may prove to have the strongest early applicants yet, as BC may have been an attractive alternative to many top students who would have otherwise applied early to Harvard, Princeton, or the University of Virginia.

"We saw the quality of early applications go up dramatically," Mahoney said. This year BC accepted 2,400 of the 6,800 early applications, and has already sent out 1,500 notices of denial.Mahoney explained that it has become increasingly difficult for students to get into colleges as the number and quality of applicants increases each year. He attributed this, in part, to a growing number of high school graduates, the expanded use of the common application and online admissions, and increased advertising by schools.

"I call it the perfect storm," Mahoney said. "It's easier to apply, so students are applying to more colleges. The top- tier schools have become almost impossible to get into - we've all become more selective. With greater selectivity, students are shut out of more schools, and therefore have to apply to more colleges, which in turn, increases selectivity. It's a vicious circle."

Whether the change in early applications will have a ripple effect that will carry into regular admission remains to be seen.

"They're still counting upstairs, but applications will definitely increase this year," Mahoney said.