U. accepts 597 in last year of Early Decision

The University accepted just over a quarter of early applicants for the Class of 2011, the last group of students to participate in Princeton's Early Decision program, Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said today.

"I am very pleased with the academic power of the group," she said in an interview. "We did refuse a small number of students — about a hundred — but the majority were deferred," she added, noting that deferred students' applications will be reconsidered in the spring.

Of a total of 2,275 applicants, 597 students were accepted, representing 48 percent of an estimated class of 1245 students. This year's acceptance rate of 26 percent fell slightly from last year's 27 percent.

Most notably this year, 31 percent of accepted students are racial minorities, in contrast with last year's 24 percent. "We are increasing diversity without sacrificing quality," Rapelye said, asserting that the minority students were no less academically qualified than others who were admitted.

As evidence, she cited the higher average SAT score among accepted students this year, the second year of the redesigned standard college admissions test.

Accepted students had an average combined SAT score of 2200, with 730, 740 and 730 in critical reading, quantitative reading and writing, respectively. Last year, students averaged 2170, with subject scores of 720, 730 and 720.

"I'm always surprised if that number goes up because it is so high already," Rapelye said. "We had no goal of making it go up. The average just came out slightly higher."

Fully 11 percent of those accepted were international, with students coming from 33 different countries. This compares to 12 percent international students from 26 different countries in 2005.

Of those students accepted early this year, 36 states are represented as well as the District of Columbia. Last year, there were students from 42 states plus the district.

In contrast to previous years, where men made up as much as 58 percent of the accepted pool, more women were accepted to the Class of 2011, with the number of men dropping to 52 percent. "I am very pleased that we had more of a gender balance this year," Rapelye noted.

The accepted students come from many different types of schools. In the 2005 group, 50 percent were public, 37 percent were private, 10 percent were religious, three percent were unclassified and one student was home schooled. These figures did not change significantly this year, Rapelye said, but she did not provide exact tallies.

A significant number of legacy students have traditionally been accepted early, and this year was no exception. This year, there were 103 accepted candidates who are the sons and daughters of Princeton alumni, representing 17 percent of the total, a slight decline from last year's 18 percent.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Rapelye reiterated her defense of legacy preference, saying that "these are students we would want anyway who are just as strong if not stronger than our other candidates."

Of the admitted students, 116, or 19 percent, are expected to enter the engineering school. This figure has grown from last year's 104 students, or 17 percent.

Rapelye reported the online application has become even more popular this year than in past years, with three in four students opting to apply digitally, up from last year's 67 percent.

Both the Princeton application and the Common Application — the same application accepted by Harvard, Yale and several hundred other colleges across the country — remain popular.

The popularity of Princeton's application, however, is sagging, with 54 percent of students using it this year compared to 63 percent last year. Rapelye said both forms of applying are here to stay.

Though this is the last year of Early Decision at Princeton, Rapelye said the admissions process was no different than previous years.

"We don't intend for it to change the makeup of the class," she said of the decision to scrap the early program. "The way that we select the class will not change."

"We hope that students and guidance counselors will have the sense that this is a fair process."