Continuing the recent trend of falling acceptance rates for Dartmouth applicants, only 30 percent of the 1,278 high-school seniors who applied for admission under the early decision program this year were accepted. The number represents the lowest early decision acceptance rate in over five years and comes a year after a record-low overall acceptance rate of 17.5 percent for the class of 2007.
Of the 384 students accepted early into the Class of 2008, there are 14 more females than males, and a record high 22 international students, comprising nearly 6 percent of the accepted students.
"We've been looking to build our international reputation, and increased numbers of international early applicants and acceptances shows it's working," Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg said. "Meanwhile, the number of minorities, in total, is almost the exact same as last year, which was a record year."
The contingent of accepted students also represents the strongest academic group accepted early in the last five years. The mean SAT verbal score for the Class of 2008's early acceptances was 709, up from 706 for this year's freshman accepted early, while the SAT math score rose to 718 from 706 last year.
"As far as mean scores go, that's a very big jump," Furstenberg said. "In general, this was as strong an Early Decision group as we've seen in a long time. Each year we have to squeeze from not only a larger but also a stronger pool, while the first-year class stays the same size."
Dartmouth legacies comprised 13.5 percent of the accepted students with 52 legacy early acceptances, even though legacies made up just 9 percent of the early applicant pool. Students of color made up 18 percent of the early acceptances; just 13 percent of early applicants were minorities.
Furstenberg said he expects that the early acceptances will comprise approximately 35 percent of the Class of 2008, a relatively small percentage compared to many other schools like Harvard and Princeton which generally accept 45 to 50 percent of their classes early.
"Even though the number of early applicants was up [from last year], we chose to take fewer because we wanted to leave more spaces for the regular decision pool," Furstenberg said. "We denied a few more of the early applicants because our regular has been so strong."
In all, approximately one-third of those who applied early received rejection letters when the envelopes went to students' homes in early December, Furstenberg said. Those not immediately accepted or rejected -- also approximately one-third of applicants -- were deferred, meaning their applications will be reviewed again in the regular admissions process.
However, according to Furstenberg's estimates, defered students should not hold out hope for admission.
"We normally take around 5 to 10 percent of the students we differ early," he said. "The odds for them are pretty long."
Even as early decision letters were being sent out last month from McNutt Hall to mailboxes across the country and the world, a new stream of applications -- regular applications -- began flowing in by mail and over the Internet.
Though the final number of applications for the Class of 2008 will not be counted for several weeks, Furstenberg looks optimistically toward a good year for the school.
"With all the press we've gotten this past year, like the multiple New York Times articles, and the economy steadily improving, as well as the increase in early applications, there appears to be increasing interest in the institution," Furstenberg said.
With all of the changes in early application policies at schools across the country, there may be fewer people already committed to a school before the regular applications are due, according to Furstenberg. The consequence may be that there are "many more people applying and many with stronger credentials."
But the final answer won't be known until the admissions office finishes sorting through the piles of applications that descended on McNutt on New Year's Day to beat the annual Jan. 1 deadline.
