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19.1% Acceptance Rate for Class of 2013

The Daily Sun is on the horn, releasing the admissions data for the University on the first day it became available:

With the selection process now complete for the Class of 2013, the University has announced an admit rate of 19.1 percent for early and regular decision. This represents a 1.3 percent decrease since last year, bringing the admit rate below 20 percent for the first time in the history of Cornell.

The University received 34,381 applications, the largest amount ever, and a 4 percent increase over last year. The admissions office received 33,073 applicants for the Class of 2012, 30,382 for the Class of 2011 and 28,097 for the Class of 2010.

For this admissions cycle, 3,311 students were waitlisted, while 22,434 were outright denied admission.

Couple of quick thoughts:

-- Per our annual tradition, we estimated an acceptance rate of 18.6 percent earlier this year. So only off by half a percentage point isn't too shabby. Of course, I would contend that I we would have been closer to the mark had the University decided to not increase the entering class size by 100 students.

-- The total application count increased somewhat to 34,381 from the 34,200 previously reported. I suspect some of that increase may be attributed to recruited athletes and 'development' VIP admits.

-- The regular decision acceptance rate stands at 17.2 percent versus the 37 percent acceptance rate for early decision candidates.

-- Just as occurred last year, there is a gap between the total number of applications, on one hand, and the total number of accepted, waitlisted, and rejected students on the other. If the same lesson from last year holds, we can assume that 2,069 students applied to Cornell but did not select a college to which to be considered for admission.

-- The implied regular decision yield for the Class of 2013 is 36 percent, for an overall expected yield of 48 percent. Frankly, the 36 percent yield figure strikes me as a bit optimistic, even if it reflects the yield enjoyed last year. Why? First, because I don't think that schools like Harvard and Princeton will want to depend as heavily on the waitlist as they did last year, meaning that there will be more cross-admit battles that Cornell will have to deal with. Secondly, because I think the current economic climate will leave a lot of families thinking long and hard about the benefits of a Cornell education vis-a-vis their in-state flagship.

-- I wonder if the University is secretly hoping to over-enroll again this year, as well. Last summer, Cornell over-enrolled by 130 students, with an entering class size of 3.180 relative to a target of 3,050. This year, with a target of 3,150 students, it would be awfully convenient for the University's budget to enroll 3,250 students.

-- As we all know, acceptance rates tell you nothing about the strength of the student body, nor the quality of the undergraduate experience.


Matthew Nagowski | Posted on March 31, 2009 (#)

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