The University accepted a record-low 9.5 percent of applicants for the Class of 2011, admitting 1,791 of the 18,942 prospective candidates.
Of the 16,605 students who applied regular decision, 1,194 were accepted to join the 597 who were admitted during the Early Decision round in December. This is the final class to admit students early.
The number of students accepted this year was one fewer than for the Class of 2010, despite the increase in the target class size to 1,245. This is 25 more students than the current freshman and sophomore classes, both of which have about 1,220 students, and it is in accordance with the University's plan to expand the undergraduate student body. Last year, the University accepted 1,792 out of a total applicant pool of 17,563, an acceptance rate of 10.2 percent.
Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye explained that her office anticipates a high percentage of accepted students to enroll. If 69.5 percent or more of the accepted students enroll, the class will fill without resorting to the waitlist. "We have had an increase in yield each of the last two years, and if the yield stays the same, we can go to the waitlist," she said. Last year's yield was 67 percent.
Harvard, Brown and Penn also saw record low acceptance rates this year — 9, 14 and 15.9 percent, respectively — and other Ivies saw dips as well, corresponding to the higher number of applications received across the league.
In contrast, Yale received 19,323 applications this year, 1,778 fewer than last year, and its percentage accepted jumped from an Ivy League low of 8.6 to 9.6 this year, the Yale Daily News reported.
Several hundred students were waitlisted, though Rapelye declined to specify the exact number. In the past two years, no students have been accepted from the waitlist due to the high yield. "If our yield went up even one percent from last year, it would be enough to fill the class," Rapelye said.
Rapelye declined to provide statistics on admitted legacy students but said they were similar to last year's. "We have admitted legacies at a rate three times as great [as the overall rate], and this has been consistently true for 25 years."
In the Class of 2010, 9.9 percent of those accepted were legacies, and 103 of the 597 early admits this year were children of alumni.
As it was last year, about 44 percent of the accepted students are minorities. "We have been trying to get a more diverse applicant pool," Rapelye said. "I would hope that all students are attracted to a more diverse campus."
"We are backing that up with racial and ethnic groups," she added. "Although we value other types of diversity, they are less quantifiable."
A large portion of the Class of 2011 will be receiving financial aid. "Fifty percent of the accepted students were offered financial aid," Rapelye said, "and that figure might go up as incomplete applications are completed." Moreover, 14 percent of those accepted came from low-income families.
International citizens were accepted from 77 countries and compose 10.6 percent of the accepted students. Last year, 9.7 percent of accepted students were international. Applicants came from more than 135 countries, Rapelye said.
"We saw an increase in international applicants, and we took a slightly larger group this year, but that wasn't a formula," she said, citing increased visibility of the University's financial aid program for international students as one potential cause of the increase.
The odds for athletes who received likely letters this past fall were much better than those for the average applicant. "The majority of students who received likely letters, and stayed in the process, were admitted," Rapelye said.
More male than female students applied and were accepted, as is generally the case in Princeton admissions. For the Class of 2011, 53 percent of those accepted were men and 47 percent women. "This proportion represents the applicant pool with 1,000 more men applying and about 100 more men admitted," Rapelye said.
Princeton is one of the few schools in the Ivy League where male applicants outnumbered female applicants.
Almost 19 percent of the admitted students plan to pursue B.S.E. degrees, Rapelye said, of which 60 percent are male and 40 percent are female. "We are very proud of that statistic because nationally it is much lower [for women]," she added.
Rapelye challenged the idea that some applicants were applying to the Engineering School as a "back door" into Princeton. "To be accepted, you have to write a very strong and convincing essay about engineering and do well on challenging SAT IIs in math and science," she said. "I think it's a hard thing to fake."
Of the accepted students, 59 percent are from public schools, 30 percent private, nine percent religiously based and two percent were home-schooled.
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