Correction appended
After receiving a record number of early applications, the College admitted 401 new members to the Class of 2013 on Dec. 10, according to Maria Laskaris '84, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. The Admissions Office received 1,571 early decision applications, a 9 percent increase from last year.
Dartmouth accepted 26 percent of early applicants this year, as compared with 28 percent in 2007. Approximately nine percent of the applicants, or 140 people, were deferred to the regular admissions pool, Laskaris said. The College usually admits about 10 percent of deferred students during the regular admissions process, she added.
"This was the most competitive year in early decision applications because of the highest volume," Laskaris said. "We felt a challenge in making some pretty nuanced decisions."
Students admitted under the early decision program will represent about 35 percent of the class of 2013, Laskaris said.
The average SAT scores for early-admitted students were slightly lower than last year's scores for students admitted during the regular admissions process. Early-admitted students averaged 707 for Critical Reading, 715 for Math and 715 for Writing this year.
There were fewer students admitted during this year's early admissions cycle who were in the top 10 percent of their class than there were last year: Eighty-seven percent of this year's early-admitted students are in the top 10 percent of their high school class, according to a December press release, as compared with 89 percent last year.
Laskaris said early decision applicants are held to the same standard as those who take part in the regular decision process.
"This is a strong, diverse class," Laskaris said. "There is great diversity when looking at financial aid, race, first-generation college students."
Of the admitted students, 197 are male and 204 are female. In terms of geographic origin, Laskaris said that 25 percent of admitted students are from the New England region, 30 percent are from the Mid-Atlantic, 10 percent are from the Mid-west, 14 percent are from the West and six percent are from outside the United States.
About 27 percent of the early-admitted students are people of color.
Students admitted early represent a total of 329 secondary schools, according to the December press release. Fifty-five percent of the admitted students come from public high schools, 38 percent from private schools and 7 percent from parochial schools.
There are 62 children of Dartmouth alumni among the early-admitted students, whereas 65 legacies were admitted early last year and 58 the year before.
The number of applicants seeking financial aid increased by about 10 percent from last year's 41.8 percent, according to the press release.
"The increased numbers of financial aid applicants will make this year a more challenging one for the staff in the Financial Aid office, though this will not impact our ability to thoroughly review the financial aid applications of those students admitted to the Class of 2013," Laskaris said.
Yale College's early action program admitted 742 applicants from a pool of a record 5,557 students, according to the Yale Daily News. Their early acceptance rate was 13.4 percent this year, a decrease from last year's early acceptance rate of 18.1 percent.
Regular decision applications for the Class of 2013 were due on Jan. 1. The Admissions Office plans to release admissions decisions and financial aid awards to those applicants in early April.
The original version of this article stated that 35 percent of early applicants were deferred to the regular admissions pool. In fact, nine percent of these applicants were deferred. In addition, 28, not 18, percent of early applicants were accepted in 2007.
