Applying Early to College

Applying Early to College January 13, 2012 The Early Decision and Early Action applicant pool is getting more diverse at prestigious universities like Duke. Theres an article in The New York Times today about applying Early to college, particularly about  the rise in Early Decision and Early Action applications at prestigious colleges across the nation. In the piece written by Richard Perez-Pena and Jenny Anderson, its stated that, over the years, the Early applicant pool has become more and more diverse. While if youre a regular reader of our blog, you know that the applicant pool that applies through Early Decision or Early Action programs is markedly less diverse than the Regular Decision pool, its still interesting to note that the Early pools diversity is on the rise. One trend in the Early Decision / Early Action pool is that more and more students are applying from around the country and around the world (especially from China) with the percentage of students applying from the U.S.s East Coast decreasing. According to The New York Times, Duke, for example, received 400 early applications this year from California or overseas; in 2005, it was fewer than 100. Haverford College, outside Philadelphia, saw early applications from abroad double this year from last. And at the University of Chicago, there were double-digit rises in the percentage of early applications from black and Hispanic students. In the article in The New York Times, many parents of Manhattan private schoolers lament the tough odds their children now face as prestigious colleges seek to diversify the Early applicant pool (in addition to the Regular applicant pool). Over the years, in line with attempts to diversify the Early pool, the percentage of students admitted Early to prestigious colleges from private high schools has decreased as the percentage of students admitted from public schools has risen. Want to read more about applying Early to college? Check out the article in The New York Times on the subject. And check out our blog on the Harvard and Princeton Early Admissions Spin.