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E-PrinceEighty-six students were taken off the University’s waitlist last week, a figure that may reflect the University’s diminishing yield on admissions.
This year, 1,526 students were initially placed on the waitlist, more than 300 more than in ...
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Downplaying expectations
For the Class of 2011, the yield rate at Harvard was 78.7%, (2,108/1,659) and the yield rate at Yale was 69.1% (1,911/1320).
The Princeton yield rate for the Class of 2011 was 67.7% (1,838/1244).
http://registrar1.princeton.edu/data/common%5Cc...
“We have a responsibility to find students who have great need.” -- Um. What? I assume this was taken out of context. The new process allows the admissions office greater flexibility in constructing its ideal class to exact specifications. Based on comments like this, and others, I'm not sure that's entirely a good thing. If we're going by "great need" then at least half the class better be Burmese. I wish I was more enthralled by academic buzzwords. Are we targeting recruiting efforts in Appalachia?
Unfortunately, given that the administration has chosen to strongly couple eliminating ED with targeting lower-income students, the academic profile of the class will also probably drop. That, even more than the yield reduction, will hurt the academic selectivity image of the university.
I assume the goal, in part, is to improve Princeton's "image" nationally so that it will appear less elitist, more egalitarian, serving a diverse student body with "a face like America" admitted on merit.
@ "The Image": That may be a goal, but I don't think that is going to get fixed, no matter what the administration does. I would say that image doesn't reflect the current campus culture, and didn't reflect it when I was there either. Sure, if you go into Ivy for dinner you might come away viewing the campus as elitist, but you could do that at any college campus if you just showed up at the right place at the right time. Princeton will always be branded as an "Ivy League" school, with all those conotations. Even if we "fix" our house (which I don't believe needs fixing), we still get tainted by the Yales of the world. Our tuition cost is still sky high. The only time our "image" will change will be when our endowment has finally reached the point that EVERY student, regardless of need, attends the University for free. @ Anonymous: I disagree. Even if they take people with lower academic qualifications (doubtful), it is the average that gets reported. That just means they'll take more 1600 / 4.0 people who have never talked to a high school classmate over the 1500 / 3.8 person who did everything at their high school. The academic selectivity of the University won't get hurt, but it could affect what I loved best about a "Princeton student" in years past.
News Flash: most Americans don't care about the image of Princeton. Trying to adjust it for them will fall on def ears and blind eyes.
Don't worry about the "targeting lower-income students" bit. Yale, Harvard, and Stanford will be getting them. Their new finaid plans have overtaken Princeton's by quite a bit.
We are inherently an elitist institution. Our socioeconomic diversity has never been on par with that of harvard and yale, and I would be remiss if I didn't say that the University would have it no other way. It's our identity.