A new study published by economists at the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute reveals what MetaEzra has been asserting all along: Cornell’s adoption of the common application since the fall of 2004 is a large factor in explaining why Cornell’s applications have skyrocketed and yield rates have fallen over the last three years. The paper reveals that, on average, a school that adopts the common application can expect a 6-7 percent increase in its applications received, and a corresponding 2-3 percent drop in its admissions rate. Of course, a school of Cornell’s caliber should probably expect an even larger effect from adopting the common application due to its perceived desirability. Compound this factor with the fact that increasingly more students are applying for increasingly more schools, and the end result is a large spike in applications, as seen between 2004 and 2005 in these data from the Cornell Factbook: Granted, other things like pretty websites and improving Cornell’s “image” matter as well. But the single most important factor explaining Cornell’s admissions numbers over the last three years is the adoption of the Common Application combined with pure demographic trends. And we’ll take the time to reiterate that admissions numbers really don’t tell us much about student quality… and the evidence suggests that the overall academic quality of the student body hasn’t improved much amid a more “competitive” admissions environment.
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