Applications to most Ivy League schools swelled this year, reaching record highs at several schools including Dartmouth.
More than 12,500 students applied for acceptance into Dartmouth's Class of 2009, marking an eight percent increase in applications. The previous high was 11,855 applicants for the Class of 2007, but the slight drop for the Class of 2008 was mirrored in many other school's applicant pools.
Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg characterized Dartmouth's rise in applications as "solid."
While the College's recovery from last year's drop is impressive, Brown University's resurgence was even more so. This year, 16,798 students applied to Brown, which is well above the school's previous all-time high.
"We are up about 10 percent for African-American applications, [and] 5 percent for Latino and Asian-American applications," Brown's Director of Admissions Michael Goldberger said.
While the total number of minority applications may have increased, the applicant pool grew more than 10 percent, making Latino and Asian applicants an even smaller portion of the applicant class.
The increase in application numbers across the Ivies has led many to speculate on how yield rates might be affected.
"The yield on offers of admission will be very competitive this year," Furstenburg said.
Goldberger, however, predicted that Brown would see similar yield figures as it has in the past.
"My guess is we'll be similar to the last few years -- between 58 and 60 percent," Goldberger said.
Despite the higher numbers of applicants and competition for their matriculation, Furstenburg said the larger applicant pool would not significantly impact Dartmouth's admissions process.
Other Ivies also made impressive gains. In particular, Harvard and Princeton achieved institutional highs in applications. Harvard received 22,717 applications for its Class of 2009 and reported that record numbers of applicants applied for early admission fee waivers.
At Princeton, 16,077 students applied for admission, topping the university's previous high of 15,725 applicants for its Class of 2007.
Yale received about 19,430 applications for the Class of 2009. Yale's admissions office, however, holds out hope that as applications continued to trickle in, the university will surpass its record high of 19,674.
The University of Pennsylvania received record numbers of Early Decision applications but has not yet made public its regular decision numbers.
Cornell University has also not yet compiled and released its applications statistics.
