Students applying to Ivy League institutions faced formidable challenges this year as admission rates at several schools dipped to record-low levels in the face of growing numbers of applicants.
Dartmouth experienced a sharp drop in its admittance rate -- which fell from 22.8 to 20 percent -- while registering a five percent rise in total applications, the greatest such increase among its peer institutions.
Harvard University was still the most selective Ivy, admitting only 10.5 percent of applicants and sending out over 17,000 letters of rejection.
Following close behind was Princeton with a 10.8 percent acceptance rate. Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia and Cornell also admitted a smaller proportion of applicants than in the past.
Yale granted admission to 2,008 students out of a record-setting pool of 15,443 applicants. The acceptance rate -- which fell to 13 percent from 13.5 percent last year -- was the lowest in the school's history.
Cornell had an overall acceptance rate of 24.4 percent this year, down from 25.7 last year. The drop occurred despite a slight decline in the total number of applications.
Declining acceptance rates among the Ivies are the product of several factors, Dartmouth Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg said."What you have is this convergence of larger groups applying, more students taken early and a higher yield rate," he explained. "It's a phenomenon experienced at the most selective places."
The College accepted 386 students through binding early decision out of a total 2,077 students admitted. Furstenberg said he expected about 50 percent of those admitted to matriculate at Dartmouth, so students admitted through the early decision process will likely compose over one-third of the Class of 2006.
Early applicants to Dartmouth were accepted at a 35-percent clip, leaving students in the second round to face an acceptance rate of under 20 percent.
At the University of Pennsylvania, 21.1percent of students were admitted overall, a record low for the school, Penn's Office of Admissions confirmed. When only those who applied through regular decision are considered, however, the rate drops to 16.7 percent.
Elsewhere, concerns that the events of Sept. 11 would deter students from applying to New York colleges seem to have been unfounded, with Columbia College receiving a record 14,106 applications.
Several Ivies, including Dartmouth debuted online notification for applicants. Furstenberg said that over 2,000 students accessed their decisions within an hour of their online posting the day after letters were mailed out.
Brown University, which has chosen not to use online notification, was also the only Ivy to see a rise in its admittance rate this year.
The increase was coupled with a significant decline in early applications, which Brown Director of Admissions Michael Goldberger said was "entirely due" to the university's decision to scrap its non-binding early action policy.
The drop in students applying early resulted in an overall decline to 14,608 applications from 16,606 in 2001, though the acceptance rate only ticked up to 16.7 percent from 16 percent last year, he added.
