Thousands of high school seniors felt devastation or elation on Thursday afternoon with the posting of admissions decisions on the College's website. Others nationwide will be finding out their fate over the next couple days via mailed decision letters.
This year, a record-low 16.8 percent of applicants for the Class of 2009 were accepted, down from an acceptance rate hovering around 18 percent for the last several years. The admissions office received a total of 12,615 applications, and admitted 2,149 students.
A decreased percentage of applicants accepted is not necessarily indicative of a stronger applicant class, but Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg maintains that the jump of about ten percent in the number of applications this year did not dilute the quality of the applicant pool.
"The growth in the number of applications is not bringing in weaker candidates, it's bringing in stronger candidates," Furstenberg said.
Furstenberg's assertions are backed by the Class of 2009's improvement on the record-high SAT scores turned in by the Class of 2008. The new top marks are an average verbal score of 729, and an average math score of 732, four points higher than last year's combined marks.
The stronger pool of applicants caused some problems for the admissions office, however. Dartmouth's jump in applications made anticipating the number of accepted students who will choose to attend the College difficult for the admissions office.
"As your pool gets bigger, stronger and more diverse, your yield tends to go down a bit because these are students who have more options," Furstenberg said.
Furstenberg anticipates a 50 percent yield -- consistent with that of previous years -- with any extra spots in the Class of 2009 being filled from the wait list.
The students accepted into the Class of 2009 are a particularly diverse group. African Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans all made notable jumps in terms of the percentages admitted. Latino student representation also increased nominally. Non-white applicants made up 46 percent of accepted students, an all-time high. Furstenberg also noticed an increased percentage of southern and western acceptances, comprising 18 and 20 percent respectively.
With 149 legacies comprising 6.9 percent of all acceptances, the sons and daughters of alumni represented the largest percentage of acceptances in five years, according to Furstenberg. Meanwhile, international students remained relatively constant at 7.3 percent of acceptances.
Dean Furstenberg cited Dartmouth's electronic recruiting efforts and the media's coverage of the College as some of the contributing factors to the widening of Dartmouth's applicant pool.
"We basically admit the students who seem to be the strongest, the most accomplished," Furstenberg said, noting that Dartmouth does not factor into their decisions the number of times students visit campus, nor the number of thank you notes students write their interviewers in an effort to boost yield.
Dartmouth's yield has been around 50 percent in the past and Furstenberg anticipates a similar number this year. Admissions only accepted six more students this year than last year based on this assumption. Furstenberg acknowledged that admissions was cautious with the number of students that they admitted and mentioned the possibility of admitting students from the wait list.
About 1200 students will be put on the wait list, and Furstenberg expects around 600 will choose to remain on it. These applications are not ranked in any way, and should spots open up in the Class of 2009, the applications of these students will be reviewed all over again, along with any additional material the students have submitted.
Being placed on the wait list is a compliment, Furstenberg said, not a way to deceive students about their chances of attending Dartmouth.
"We reject almost ten thousand people," Furstenberg said, emphasizing the pride that those applicants should feel for having been chosen out of such a competitive pool.
