University admits 176 more for Class of 2009

The University has offered admission to 1,807 students out of a record 16,516 applicants to the Class of 2009, Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye will announce today. This year's acceptance rate of 10.9 percent is a one percentage point drop over last year's figure, though it is higher than the record low 9.9 percent for the Class of 2007.

"I was especially pleased by the quality of the applicant pool this year," Rapelye said in an interview Thursday. "By our traditional measures of scores and grades, our applicant pool was not only larger but slightly better than last year's academically."

The average SAT scores and the number of students who ranked in the top-10 percent of their high school classes were both higher than last year, though exact figures are not currently available, Rapelye said. The Admission Office has also not yet calculated the number of "academic 1's" — students holding the highest possible rank on the Office's internal academic rating scale.

Rapelye sent out a total of 1,214 acceptance letters to Regular Decision candidates out of the 14,477 that applied, for a Regular Decision acceptance rate of 8.4 percent. The University has already admitted 593 early decision applicants — 29.1 percent of the 2,039 that applied.

The University plans to enroll 1,220 students for the Class of 2009, 28 more students than was originally planned. The number of students accepted went up by 176 from last year's 1,631 accepted.

Given the number of the Class of 2009's 1,220 spots that have already been filled in the Early Decision round, about 627 of the 1,214 Regular Decision admits are expected to enroll. This indicates the Admission Office expects a yield roughly in line with last year's figure of 68 percent.

Rivals Harvard and Yale universities reported record low acceptance rates for their classes. Harvard accepted 9.1 percent of applicants and Yale accepted 9.7 percent according to reports in The Harvard Crimson and Yale Daily News.

The number of students hailing from minority backgrounds increased 7 percentage points to 42 percent this year. Of admitted students, 9.9 percent are legacies — a number which dropped from 11.2 percent last year. Men continue to hold a slight advantage over women at Princeton, comprising 54 percent of the admitted class — unlike that of Harvard College, where women outnumber men.

Of the students admitted, almost 50 percent received offers of financial aid.

Rapelye also said that she was particularly pleased that 18 percent of those offered admission plan to study engineering.

From a pool of students from 6,152 different high schools worldwide, the Class of 2009 includes students from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., with the largest number of students being accepted from California, New Jersey, New York and Texas.

Though students from 122 countries applied to Princeton, international students in the Class of 2009 hail from 46 nations — making up 9 percent of the admitted student pool — including countries "from where we don't always see applicants" such as Bangladesh, Trinidad and Tobago, Kuwait and Moldova, Rapelye said.

This was the first year that the University accepted the Common Application, the same application accepted by Harvard, Yale and over 250 other colleges across the United States. The decision to accept the Common App "opened up opportunities for people to apply here," Rapelye said. She did not elaborate on whether traditionally underrepresented groups were applying in greater numbers, though the number of students from minority backgrounds rose significantly this year.

Sixty percent of applicants used the online application. Of those students, 75 percent chose the Common App online over the University's own online application — an "encouraging" development, Rapelye said.

Among Regular Decision applicants, 67 percent used the Common App. In a direct contrast, the vast majority of Early Decision applicants used Princeton's application, with only 531 — or 26 percent — using the Common App.

Rapelye stressed that the Common App, including the supplement, ask exactly the same questions as Princeton's application.

She also said that the Admission Office makes no judgment about an applicant based on which application he or she uses, as is required of all colleges that use the Common App.

Related stories

— Application numbers hit all-time high with Class of 2009 (Feb. 2, 2005) — University will accept Common App for Class of 2009 (April 21, 2004) — University accepts 11.9 percent for Class of 2008 (April 2, 2004)