The Sun is running another article on the admissions cycle for the Class of 2012. We get some interesting tidbits of information: Well, the university targets an incoming freshman class of 3,050. And if the University accepted 6,730 students this year, of which 1,139 were accepted early, that leaves 5,5591 students to fill the remaining 1,912 open slots. So the implicit expected yield is 45 percent, and 34 percent for regular decision applications. Last year total overall yield was 47 percent. But we do get a glimpse at Doris Davis's philosophy when it comes to admissions: “Essentially, Cornell tries to admit as many students as we can without over-enrolling,” she stated. “I think some of the peer schools try to admit as few students as possible.” Additionally, Davis asserted that the admissions office admitted more students this year in an effort to accept fewer students from the wait list. Last year, according to Davis, Cornell accepted over 100 students from the wait list. Doris Davis, associate provost for admissions and enrollment, could not offer an estimate of Cornell’s expected yield — a percentage of accepted students who matriculate — but stated that the admissions office has made “estimates based on the number who have enrolled in previous years.”
However, Davis stated that Cornell’s admit rate reflects the University’s attempt to admit the greatest number of students that it can.
The exact number of students Cornell took off the waitlist last year? 279. At least according to the Common Data Set. Obviously, Cornell is having problems landing common admits, presumably due to financial aid packages. This is reflected in the lower expected yield for this year's class.
We also get the first glimpse at how the primary/secondary college application system worked out:
Twenty-two percent of applicants applied to two colleges, according to Davis. Ninety-eight percent of all admitted students were accepted to their first choice college, while only two percent were accepted to their second choice.
That's 135 lucky kids. Although it remains to be seen whether or not they are just going to immediately transfer back to the primary college to which they applied to through the Internal Transfer Division.
And this:
Across the undergraduate colleges, acceptance rates ranged from 15.3 to 32 percent.
Our hunch? Arts and Engineering, respectively.
Then there's the unfortunate chart that accompanies the Daily Sun article. Apparently 33,011 students applied to Cornell this year. But the chart only claims 30,011 students did so. Maybe the student designer had a prelim last night and was pressed for time?
Finally, to continue the conversation started last week on the gap between the reported number of students rejected, accepted, or waitlisted and the number of students who applied to Cornell, we have some follow up information to share.
It seems that the gap is explained by the students who failed to complete their applications, as thought. More generally, most schools are guilty of these types of practices. It most generally occurs at schools where students need to select a college (e.g. Cornell, Penn, Northwestern), but every school has to deal with students who, for instance, withdraw their applications due to an acceptance into another school's ED program.
And from what I have heard out of Cornell's admissions office, Cornell is generally more on the ball on these issues than most other schools. Cornell actually goes out of their way to call students who have incomplete applications and reports the number of students who don't designate a college.
Unfortunately people tend to get hung up on the acceptance rates, even though they don't tell us much.
