News & Notes: Yale sees a significant drop in number of early action applicants

This drop comes following the concurrent readoption of early application policies at both Princeton and Harvard. “Though it is impossible to identify all of the factors that influence early admissions numbers,” Yale Dean of Undergrad Admissions Jeffrey Brenzel said, “it is clear that the policies this year are allowing students to sort themselves out more among schools.”

Brenzel added that the drop was expected given that prospective students are limited to applying to only one of these schools early.

Despite the drop, Brenzel said, the number of applicants this year was 20 percent higher than the number for the Class of 2011, the last year of the early application program at Princeton and Harvard.

According to admission consultants, the inclusion of Princeton and Harvard as early application options will increase applicants’ interest in the school to which they applied.

“Yale should be pleased that they are not wasting time on applicants who don’t really want to go there,” college guidance counselor Jon Reider said to the Yale Daily News.

Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania received 3,547, 1,800, 2,900 and 4,510 early applications respectively for the Class of 2016.