CAMBRIDGE, MA -Student entering the Admissions Building at Harvard University in Cambridge, ... [+]
This week, colleges and universities begin to release their rates of early admission, offering the first glimpse at the competitiveness of this application cycle as well as the size and demographics of this year’s applicant pool. This year’s data is particularly significant, as the pandemic’s effects on college admissions are waning and universities across the country have seen a precipitous drop in enrollment.
Early Action (EA) and Early Decision (ED) pools tend to offer a limited picture of the admissions landscape on the whole, as applicants tend to be more highly motivated to attend the school to which they are applying. In addition, the makeup of the early applicant pool typically consists of a greater number of higher-income students—this year, 61% of early applicants in the U.S. hailed from the wealthiest quintile of zip codes in the nation. Regardless, schools’ reported EA and ED admissions data can inform what one can expect from the overall diversity of this year's college applicants, the number of students applying to college, the schools that generate high demand, and the competitiveness of this year’s application cycle.
Initial data shows some promising trends, including a 24% increase in distinct first-year applicants since the last pre-pandemic cycle in 2019-2020. The Common App Data Analytics and Research division further reported a 37% increase in underrepresented minority applicants as well as a 43% increase in first-generation applicants since the 2019-2020 cycle. Some of the most elite colleges and universities in the country also saw an increase in applicants from underrepresented groups—a record 41% of Dartmouth’s domestic cohort of early admits were students of color, and many prestigious universities reported more than 50 students accepted through QuestBridge, a nonprofit program which matches low-income (and often first-generation) students to affiliated colleges and universities.
For some elite universities, this year’s early application cycle also proved to be one of the most competitive in their history. The University of Pennsylvania received its highest volume of early applicants, totaling over 8,000. Yale University saw its second-highest number of early applicants ever received, along with the lowest early acceptance rate in the last 20 years. Harvard University reported that its acceptance rate of 7.56% is the second lowest for the early round of admissions to date. Duke University also announced its lowest early admissions acceptance rate this year at 16.5%—down from 21% last year.
While schools will continue to report their early admissions data over the coming weeks, below are the numbers that have been self-reported by colleges and universities thus far:
Publicly available data as of December 21, 2022 compiled by Command Education.
