In an email to CAAAN volunteers, the admissions office has provided an early glimpse at the total number of undergraduate applications to Cornell this year. While not all of applications may have been processed yet, Cornell has received roughly 34,200 applications to date for the Class of 2013, which reflects a net gain of ~1100 applications, or roughly a three percent increase over the 33,073 received last year. This increase if fairly comparable to increases seen at other competitive schools across the country. Princeton saw a two percent increase, while Dartmouth realized a nine percent increase. Keep in mind that because Cornell has already such a large amount of students applying every year -- roughly twice the number of students as Dartmouth, for instance -- the same absolute increase in applications results in a lower percentage increase. But based on these numbers MetaEzra can continue our long standing tradition of projecting the acceptance rate for the Class of 2013. And provided the school doesn't increase the target size for the freshman class above 3,050 students, Cornell is going to drop below 20 percent for the first time in history, with an expected acceptance rate of 18.6 percent. The main reason for this decline is Cornell's increased reliance on early decision this year, as 1250 students were accepted early -- over 100 more ED admits than the previous historical high. So there are only 1800 spots left among the regular applicant pool, to which 30,800 students applied. And assuming a regular decision yield rate of 35 percent (last year this number stood at 36 percent), only 5,150 students will have to be admitted to fill the class, compared to 5,700 last year. Expect the regular decision acceptance rate to be around 16.5 percent. Of course, this could all change if the University decides to enroll more students this year to combat budgetary pressures (although I suspect that will more likely occur among transfer applicants). And we already know that acceptance rates really tell you nothing.
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