The students, who were informed of their acceptance via an online notification system at 3 p.m. on Dec. 9, will comprise approximately 40 percent of the class. The Class of 2016 will include approximately 1,110 students, which is comparable to size of the Class of 2015, she said.
The slightly higher number of admitted students will make selecting the remaining class during the regular decision process more difficult for the Admissions Office, but "was an opportunity to admit through early decision exceptional students," Laskaris said.
Approximately 600 students were deferred while roughly 700 were denied admission, Laskaris said.
"We denied a few more students than we have before, as the overall strength and quality of the pool has grown," Laskaris said. "Because of this, we have decided to deny admission more than defer because of the level of competition they will face in the regular pool."
Admitted students are more diverse than in past years, according to Laskaris. Approximately 24 percent of early admits are students of color, compared to 22 percent of early decision admits for the Class of 2015.
The mean SAT score of admitted students was 2146, marking a slightly higher score than last year's average score of 2144, according to Laskaris. The Class of 2014's mean score was 2150.
"We have a strong group in terms of testing," she said. "But beyond numerical credentials, we were struck by substance."
Thirty-one percent of accepted students are currently slated to be the valedictorians of their high school class, while 21 percent are slated to be the salutatorians. Eighty-eight percent of students admitted early are in the top 10 percent of their classes. These figures represent a slight uptick from students admitted through the early decision process to the Class of 2015, as 25 percent of students were valedictorians, 9 percent were salutatorians and 87 percent were ranked in top 10 percent of their classes.
Dartmouth saw a 2.3-percent increase in early decision applications this year. While the rise in applications reflects a five-year growth trend at the College, many other Ivy League schools experienced a decrease in early decision applicants, as Harvard University and Princeton University reinstituted their early admissions programs this year.
Harvard admitted 772 of 4,231 early applicants, according to The Harvard Crimson, while Princeton admitted 726 of 3,443 early applicants, according to The Daily Princetonian.
Harvard and Princeton's returning early admissions programs did not affect the number of students Dartmouth chose to admit through early decision, Laskaris said.
"When we approach the early decision process, it's an opportunity to admit and bring to Dartmouth students who we think are exceptional and the kind of students we want to enroll at Dartmouth," she said. "We need to strike that right balance."
Other peer institutions experienced a decline in early applications and had varied admission rates in preparation for regular decision applicants whose choice of where to apply will rely on early decisions received from Harvard and Princeton.
The University of Pennsylvania, which received 1.3 percent fewer early decision applications than last year, admitted a lower percentage of early applicants in order to allow for more flexibility in regular admission, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian. Admissions officers expect that students who unsuccessfully applied early to Harvard and Princeton will apply to Penn in the regular decision round, Penn Dean of Admissions Eric Furda said in the The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Yale University's total number of early applicants declined roughly 18 percent from last year due to Harvard and Princeton's return to early admission programs, the Yale Daily News reported. Yale admitted 675 of 4,304 early applicants this year compared to 761 of 5,257 for the Class of 2015, reflecting a slight increase in its early admission rate 15.7 percent compared to 14.5 percent. Yale plans to admit another 1,300 to 1,500 applicants in the spring, according to the Yale Daily News.
Brown University, Columbia University and Cornell University were more selective during early admission this year.
Brown's early decision admission rate dropped to 19 percent this year, with 556 of 2,919 applicants receiving offers of admission, The Brown Daily Herald reported. Last year, 20 percent of Brown's 2,976 early applicants were accepted.
Columbia admitted a record-low 19.6 percent of its 3,088 early applicants, while the school received 3,229 early applications last year, the Columbia Daily Spectator reported. The Columbia Office of Undergraduate Admissions attributed this year's decrease in early applications to changes in the early admission programs of "peer institutions," according to the Daily Spectator.
Cornell University accepted 1,171 of 3,600 early applicants, an acceptance rate of 32.5 percent compared to 35 percent last year, according to The New York Times. Most schools' admit rates, including Dartmouth's, remained relatively consistent with those of past years.
Jennifer Christenson, co-director of college counseling at Marin Academy, a small, independent high school in San Rafael, Calif., said she was not surprised by this trend.
"Harvard and Princeton's re-implementation of early action programs seemed to calm some of the growth we saw in years past in early decision pools," Christenson said.
She predicted that this will make the highly selective regular decision pools of Dartmouth and its peer institutions less inflated, increasing yields.
"I'm hoping this will make regular decision more straightforward," she said. "But this will mean they will accept fewer students."
