Admissions Blog

Undergraduate Admissions Uncensored

Boston University’s Overall Acceptance Rate Drops to 10.7%

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Boston University (BU) will be notifying Regular Decisions applicants tomorrow, Saturday, March 25, 2023.

According to Kelly A. Walter, BU’s Associate Vice President for Enrollment & Dean of Admissions, “It has been the single most challenging admissions cycle of my career given that we received 80,492 applications for just 3,100 seats in our first-year class…we had to make some extraordinarily difficult decisions about who was admitted to the class.”

BU’s overall acceptance rate during the 2022-2023 admissions cycle fell to just 10.7%. Last year, BU got a similar number of applicants but accepted roughly 14% of them.

Walter added that, “since we have been significantly overenrolled for each of the past two years, it was absolutely critical for us to plan for yet another increase in yield. As a result, we had no choice but to significantly decrease the number of students to whom we offered admission.”

BU’s Early Decision acceptance rate was roughly 25% this cycle.

Northwestern Releases Regular Decisions, Class of 2027 Statistics

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Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois, finalized is Regular Decision selection process and notified applicants of their decisions today, Friday, March 24.

Overall, Northwestern reviewed over 52,000 first-year applications from over 10,000 high schools around the world for a class that will ultimately only include roughly 2,100 students, according to Liz Kinsley, Northwestern’s Associate Dean & Director, Undergraduate Admission. Last year Northwestern reviewed 51,554 applications.

Northwestern previously admitted about half of its incoming Class of 2027 through Early Decision, and the university’s overall admit rate will stay roughly 7%. Northwestern’s Fall 2022 ED applicant pool grew by 3.5% to just over 5,200 applicants. This means that Northwestern’s Early Decision acceptance rate now hovers around 20%. In addition to growth in volume, Northwestern saw growth in the number of secondary schools represented in its ED pool of applicants: the number of schools represented by ED applicants was up 22% overall with a 25% increase in U.S. public schools represented.

Students admitted Regular Decision have until May 1 to accept their offer. Official steps toward enrolling in the Class of 2027 are outlined on Northwestern’s Admitted Student Website and will also be mailed with an admit packet.

For applicants offered a place on Northwestern’s waitlist, the deadline to accept a waitlist offer is May 1. Students who accept a waitlist spot before April 15 will be asked to reconfirm their interest in the waitlist on that date; the university will reach out via email with reconfirmation steps. Northwestern’s waitlist is unranked, and waitlisted students are welcome to write the admissions office if they’re still particularly interested in Northwestern. Additional materials should be uploaded via the applicant portal or emailed.

In other news, high school students in the Class of 2024 should know that Northwestern has confirmed that it will remain test-optional for the 2023–2024 admissions cycle.

Northwestern University’s campus in Evanston, Illinois, USA.

USC First-Year Applications Up 17%

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University of Southern California received nearly 81,000 applications for first-year admission during the 2022-2023 admissions cycle, which is a 17% increase over last year. This comes after USC introduced Early Action as an application plan last summer.

Meanwhile, USC will make Regular Decision notifications later today, Friday, March 24. According to Kirk Brennan, USC’s Associate Dean and Director of Undergraduate Admission, “In hopes of minimizing disruption of school days around the globe, our release is scheduled for the late afternoon Pacific time. Students should wait for our email stating the status is available before visiting the USC applicant portal.”

Ultimately, the university will accept around 8,000 first-year applicants for fall 2023 admission, which includes the 2,470 admitted through Early Action. Though this total is only slightly smaller than last year, with the increased application numbers, the competition for limited space was noticeably higher. USC will post final enrollment statistics later this year.

Tomorrow, Saturday, March 25, USC will email approximately 1,000 admitted students results of their merit scholarship application.

USC does not use a waiting list. Instead, it offers a smaller group of students (roughly 1,200 this year) admission to the spring term, which begins in January 2024. If after May 1 USC has room in its fall class, it will invite some spring admits to change their term to fall. All students who submit their spring Intent to Enroll form by May 1 will be considered for any available space. Students in this situation are asked to refrain from sending any other documents to be considered for fall.

In other news, the LA-based research university announced earlier this month that it will now have a new campus in Washington, DC.

Rice admissions decisions released March 27

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The wait is almost over for high school seniors who applied Regular Decision to Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Rice will release admission, scholarship, and financial aid decisions for each Regular Decision applicant in his or her Rice Admission Student Portal on Monday, March 27 after 5:00 p.m. Central Time.

Dr. Yvonne M. Romero da Silva, Rice’s Vice President for Enrollment, encourages every Regular Decisions applicant to log in to their portal ahead of Monday’s release to ensure ease of access, and if a student should have any problem logging in, he or she should contact the admissions office at [email protected] for assistance.

Rice University is a private research university located in Houston, Texas. It was founded in 1912 and has since become known for its strong focus on undergraduate education, innovative research, and world-class faculty. With an undergraduate enrollment of around 4,250 students, Rice University is a small, tight-knit community that offers a highly personalized educational experience. The university has consistently been ranked among the top 20 national universities by U.S. News & World Report and is known for its excellent programs in engineering, natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

The university’s campus spans 300 acres and features a mix of modern and historic buildings, including some designed by renowned architects such as Michael Graves and Philip Johnson. In addition to its academic programs, Rice University is home to a variety of research centers and institutes, including the Baker Institute for Public Policy, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, and the Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology. The university is also home to numerous cultural and recreational facilities, such as the Moody Center for the Arts, the Rice Media Center, and the Rice University Art Gallery.

Good luck to those who’ve applied to Rice’s Class of 2027.

WashU Receives Fewer Applications, Releases Regular Decisions March 23

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Washington University in St. Louis will release admission decisions for Regular Decision applicants in the late afternoon on March 23, 2023. The university will notify students via email on March 23 when decisions have been posted to the WashU Pathway.

This news comes as Ronné P. Turner, Washington University’s Vice Provost of Admissions & Financial Aid, shared that the selective private St. Louis university received over 32,000 applications from “wonderful young people around the globe” this admissions cycle. WashU received 33,214 applications last year for its Class of 2026.

Waitlisted students have until April 15 to respond affirming that they would like to remain on the waitlist, and they can do so by submitting a form through their WashU Pathway. A waitlisted student is also welcome, though not required, to submit updates he or she feels may help the WashU admissions team better understand the student’s application, and again, this can be accomplished via the Application Updates form in the WashU Pathway.

Turner added, “Our selection process is guided by a diverse committee of admissions professionals in an effort to ensure that, together, our five academic divisions create a community that is welcoming, nurturing, and intellectually rigorous.”

Admitted students will have access to WashU’s Admitted Student Portal once decisions are released. This portal will be their primary source for information about on-campus visits and virtual opportunities to engage with our admissions team and community. Students have until May 1 to submit their acceptance forms and enrollment deposits via the Pathway.

Meanwhile, students who applied for financial assistance can view their offer in the WashU Pathway. In addition, admitted students will receive more information about housing in mid-April and orientation in May.

Amherst College Accepts 9% of Applicants to Class of 2027

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Octagon Observatory at Amherst College

Amherst College will release its Regular Decision admissions notifications to applicants on Friday, March 17, at 6:21 p.m. US Eastern Time (corresponding to 18:21 on the twenty-four-hour clock in order to pay homage to 1821, the year of Amherst’s founding). These decisions will be posted on the applicant’s online Application Status Portal. Earlier this week, applicants received an email alerting them to the date, time, and manner of the decision release. Decisions options include Admit, Wait List or Deny.

The Regular Decisions notifications come as Cate Granger Zolkos, Amherst College’s Dean of Admission, also shared news about its overall Class of 2027, members of whom will begin their studies at the selective liberal arts college late this summer.

Overall, Amherst received more than 12,700 applications for first-year entry and it admitted only 9% of these applications. Admitted students hail from 54 countries around the world, 49 U.S. states, and Washington, DC.

Meanwhile, 38% of Amherst’s admitted students opted to not have their test scores considered as part of their application.

During the previous admissions cycle, that which took place during the 2021-2022 school year, Amherst received a record 14,800 applications and posted a 7% acceptance rate.

Those Students admitted Regular Decisions this cycle will find information on their Application Status Portals about Amherst’s Be A Mammoth program, a series of opportunities to engage with the Amherst College community and other admitted students, and receive instructions on responding to an offer of admission by the college’s May 1 response deadline.

Those applicants receiving a decision of Wait List will be given the option of electing to remain active on the wait list or declining that offer by submitting Amherst’s Wait List Response Form, found on their Application Status Portal. Students who have been denied admission will receive a message of Amherst’s deep appreciation for their interest in Amherst and the considerable time and effort they devoted to the preparation of their application for review.

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts. The college has a total undergraduate enrollment of around 2,000 students, and its campus covers 1,000 acres.

Academically, Amherst is known for its strong emphasis on undergraduate education and its commitment to intellectual inquiry. The college offers more than 850 courses across 38 departments, and all students are required to complete a senior thesis or project. Amherst has a student-faculty ratio of 7:1, and the average class size is around 16 students. The college is a member of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows students to take courses at four other colleges in the area.

Amherst is also known for its diverse student body and its commitment to inclusion and equity. The college has a need-blind admission policy and meets the full demonstrated financial need of all admitted students. In recent years, Amherst has made a concerted effort to increase the diversity of its student body and faculty. The college’s teams compete in the NCAA Division III.

Tulane’s acceptance rate is 13%. Only 34% are male.

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Tulane’s Gibson Hall

Tulane University has offered admission to roughly 4,000 students for its Class of 2027. The New Orleans-based university expects roughly 1,850 students to begin as freshmen in August. All decisions have now been released. Among applications submitted, only 13% were admitted.

“To save room for more first-generation college students and students who do not feel comfortable making a binding commitment so early, we reduced our Early Decision offers of admission this year and increased Early Action and Regular Decision offers.” shared Shawn Abbott, Tulane’s Vice President for Enrollment Management and Dean of Admission.

While a 13% acceptance rate certainly sounds extreme, if one digs into the numbers, other stats are may be even more astonishing. For instance, of those accepted, roughly 34% reported their legal sex as male (actually up from 32% last year) and roughly 66% reported their legal sex as female. Nearly 5% identified as trans or non-binary.

Overall, fewer than 800 first-year applicants were offered admission via Early Decision and fewer than 400 via Early Decision II, while nearly 2,400 were offered admission via Early Action and over 400 via Regular Decision. This means Tulane extended roughly 400 additional non-binding offers of admission this year compared to the 2021-2022 admissions cycle.

Roughly 250 additional students were admitted for Spring 2024 with the opportunity to spend their first semester in Barcelona, London, Paris, or Rome.

As it relates to academic credentials, those students admitted on average had a 3.8 average GPA (up from 3.73 last year), a 1473 on the SAT, and/or nearly a 33 on the ACT.  Roughly 50% were admitted without test scores (up from 46% last year). At high schools that provided Tulane with class rank, more than 64% rank in the top 10% of their graduating class (up from 60%).

Tulane is also reporting that 41% of those accepted identify as students of color (up from 38% last year). An additional 11% are foreign nationals (up from 6% last year), not including U.S. citizens schooled abroad, 10% will be the first generation in their families to graduate from college (up from 7% last year), 11% are from Louisiana (up from 9% last year), and 7% are from New Orleans (up from 5%).

Roughly 4,000 students were offered a space on Tulane’s wait list, and Tulane expects that at least half of those 4,000 will see their interest in Tulane wane quickly and significantly as they rightfully get excited about alternate options. By May 1, Tulane predicts fewer than 2,000 students will be holding a space on its waitlist, and it is premature to predict how many will be admitted. In recent years, the number of students Tulane has been able to admit from its waitlist has ranged from zero to fifty.

University of Washington Releases Admissions Decisions

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The admissions team at University of Washington has finished reviewing this year’s over 62,000 freshman applications, which represents another record breaking year, and it looks forward to sending most admissions decisions between March 9 and March 15, 2023.

An applicant will receive an email notifying the student that his or her admission decision has been updated in the applicant’s MyUW portal where the decision can be viewed. If the student hasn’t already done so, he or she will need to set up his or her UW NetID in order to log in to MyUW. Note that it may take up to 24 hours to create a new account.

Admitted students will receive an offer packet in the mail containing an official offer letter with their assigned major or pre-major, possible Purple & Gold scholarship offer (U.S. nonresidents only), and other information about taking the next steps to becoming a Husky. Additional information and next steps can be found at uw.edu/newhuskies.

Students invited to join the waitlist must opt in by submitting the online form found in their MyUW portal. The deadline to join the waitlist is April 1. Students on the waitlist are no longer eligible to appeal for admission off the waitlist. If a student is not admitted from the waitlist, they may appeal once the waitlist is closed.

Application increases make the selection process challenging, and sadly the university was not able to offer admission to many strong candidates. If the university was unable to extend an offer of admission, students will be notified in their MyUW account and directed to other resources.

Students with incomplete applications whose files were closed due to incomplete or missing information may appeal to have their file reopened. More details about the university’s updated freshman appeals policy and process can be found on its website.

The University of Washington is often colloquially referred to as UW, Washington, or simply UDub. The school’s sports teams are known as the Huskies, and their mascot is a Siberian husky named Dubs.

University of Washington is known for its spring cherry blossoms.

UDub is located in the heart of Seattle, with stunning views of Lake Washington, the Olympic Mountains, and the Cascade Range. The location allows for easy access to the city’s cultural and entertainment offerings, including museums, theaters, and restaurants. The campus is known for its beautiful cherry blossoms which bloom every spring. The trees were a gift from Japan in 1912. Meanwhile, the university’s Suzzallo Library is a notable landmark on campus, known for its grand reading room modeled after the Reading Room in the British Museum in London. The Odegaard Undergraduate Library is another unique feature of the campus, with modern and innovative design.

Interestingly, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture is located on the UW campus and is the state museum of Washington. The museum has over 16 million artifacts, specimens, and cultural heritage objects.

The increase in applications is not a surprise, as the university was one of the last major research universities to join the Common App, which often causes a spike in application numbers. Currently, the university still accepts around half of those students who apply from out of state and roughly 60% of those who apply as residents of Washington.

 

UC Davis Releases Class of 2027 Admissions Decisions

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This Friday afternoon, UC Davis will share via email admission notices with high school seniors who applied to UC Davis for Fall 2023. Students can also check their status in MyAdmissions, the university’s secure admission portal.

UC Davis received more than 94,000 applications for first-year admission, and while the university expects to grow the size of its incoming first-year class by approximately 200 new students this fall, admission remained competitive. As a result, many highly qualified applicants were offered a space on UC Davis’ waitlist or denied due to space limitations.

Robert Penman, UC Davis’ Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions, said the campus aims to enroll an entering class of about 9,400 new undergraduates, up about 200 from fall 2022. Plans call for almost all of that increase to come from among California residents. California residents applying to be first-year students at UC Davis numbered 65,109 and account for 68.8% of all first-year applicants.

Students who were offered a space on the waitlist should take advantage of that opportunity and opt-in by April 15 if they remain interested in attending UC Davis this fall. The waitlist remains a viable opportunity for admission depending on how many accepted students commit to attend.

Thus, admission to the UC Davis Class of 2027 is a great achievement. UC Davis has created a fun virtual celebration kit, and accepted students are encouraged to attend one of the university’s upcoming events through which students can learn more about the Davis campus.

Admitted first-year students have until May 1 to commit to UC Davis by submitting their Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) through MyAdmissions. Admission notices for transfer applicants will go out in late-April, with an SIR deadline of June 1.

UC Davis Arboretum

UC Davis, formally known as the University of California, Davis, is a public research university that has a long-standing tradition of excellence in agricultural and environmental research, which is reflected in its academic programs, research centers, and collaborations with industry partners. The university is also home to several state-of-the-art research facilities, including the California National Primate Research Center, the UC Davis Medical Center, and the Genome Center, among others. Overall, UC Davis offers a vibrant and dynamic student experience, with over 700 student organizations, world-class athletic facilities, and a beautiful campus located in one of the most scenic regions of the most populous state in America.

UC Davis is located in Davis, California, which is in Yolo County and situated in the Sacramento Valley, about 15 miles west of Sacramento. The campus spans over 5,300 acres, making it one of the largest university campuses in the United States.

The physical campus is characterized by its open spaces, bike paths, and modern architecture. The campus is divided into several distinct areas, including the main campus, the Health Sciences District, and the West Village student housing complex. The campus features a mix of historic and modern buildings, including the iconic Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, which hosts a wide range of cultural events throughout the year.

UC Davis is also known for its commitment to sustainability, and the campus is designed with sustainability in mind, featuring green roofs, solar panels, and other environmentally-friendly features. The campus is home to the UC Davis Arboretum, a 100-acre garden and educational center, which showcases the region’s native flora and fauna. Overall, the UC Davis campus is a beautiful and unique setting that offers a great environment for students, faculty, and staff to learn, work, and explore.

 

Common App Essay: Size Does Matter

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Every year students ask me the same question:

“How long should my Common Application essay be?”

I am never shy about providing them with the response that best summarizes how they need to approach both the Common Application essay and the Common Application in general:

“Go Big or Go Home!”

Despite what the official directions on the Common App indicate, students writing a 250-word essay – the lowest end of the range that is officially acceptable to complete this essay – have a far lower chance of convincing college admissions officers of their admissions-worthiness than students who believe in the maxim, ‘bigger is better.” The official upper limit in acceptable length on the Common App essay is 650 words.

A well-thought out and well-developed essay of any true substance is not only not possible in 250 words, it’s barely possible in 450 words. This is why none of our clients have ever submitted a Common App essay consisting of fewer than 450 words. With that said, the true sweet spot in Common Application essay writing, for this current year’s prompts and prompts going back over a decade, is 500 to 650 words. This was even the case a few years ago when the Common App limited students to a mere 500 words. That experiment lasted for such a short time because colleges were getting such transparently superficial essays that they were a waste of time and effort for students and completely lacking any valuable insight helpful to college admissions officers.

Think of a 500- to 650-word essay as a smooth and enjoyable flight from D.C. to Disney World. In 500 to 650 words students have the space they need to achieve proper cruising altitude: writing a strong introductory paragraph that both grabs readers’ attention and clearly states the essay’s thesis. Next, just as one wants to have an enjoyable in-flight experience with the fasten seatbelt sight off and flight attendants passing out drinks and snacks, so to does a 500- to 650-word essay allow readers to relax a bit. In 500 to 650 words students are able to produce non-rushed, non-turbulent, highly valuable descriptive and specific body paragraphs that go a long way toward proving the essay’s thesis. Finally, landing a plane takes great skill, as does writing a conclusion to a college application essay. It’s not a simple rehash of the lift off (thesis); it should be complementary to it. Students who have 500 to 650 words to work with are able to smoothly touch down in a way that puts the cherry on top of the entire flying/essay reading experience. At the end of the day, admissions officers read your essays because they want to fly the friendly skies with you into your world. 500 to 600 words allows you to give them a proper flying experience and gives you the words necessary to differentiate your world from the world of other applicants.

In order to produce a great final draft essay, your rough drafts should be even longer than 650 words. It’s very common for our clients to create first, second, and third draft essays of nearly 1,000 words. Only through consistent and high quality editing can any essay be ready for submission to colleges and universities, and starting with too few words on initial drafts is a recipe for a puny little final draft essay.

So, the big take-away ideas on the Common App Essay are these:

  • Don’t do the minimum because you are officially allowed to do the minimum
  • Go big or go home – your final draft should be 500 to 650 words and your first draft should be even longer
  • In your final draft, ensure that paragraph transitions are smooth – just as a good pilot and great weather conditions allow a flight to be smooth from lift-off to landing

Before I share more extremely important Common App essay advice, let’s zero in on what students are going to be writing about on this year’s Common App. None of the essay prompts are easy, and all require a great deal of time, thought, and drafting before members of the Class of 2022 can confidently hit submit on their applications.

The 2023-2024 Common Application essay prompts are as follows:

Choose the option below that best helps you write an essay of no more than 650 words.

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Honestly, I miss the old questions that existed through the 2016-2017 iteration of the Common App. The current questions indicate that the people behind the Common App are less and less interested in reading essays from normal teenagers and more and more interested in pushing teens to appear exceptional, idiosyncratic, or downright eccentric for the purpose of entertaining application readers and putting on a show of some sort of diversity. I would be surprised if many of the admissions officers could portray themselves accurately with these prompts. But we take the world we are given; this is what students in the Class of 2022 who will apply to Common App colleges and universities have to work this admissions cycle.

Remember that it’s always better to start brainstorming sooner rather than later, and if your essay is still not where you want it after working on it for a while, make sure to check out why your essay may be really bad or downright awful. You should aim to wrap up your Common App essay no later than early August, which will give you plenty of time to draft and perfect your essays for Common Application supplements.

Remember, if you want or need help with any part of your essay brainstorming and drafting, I’m here to help you.

Good luck!

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Important Related Links:

2023-2024 Common App essay prompts: the best and worst for you

The Stats You Need: Most Popular & Least Popular Common App Essay Prompts

Why Your College Application Essay is So Bad

Why Your College Application Essay is Awful

Ultimate College Application Essay Brainstorm

Secret to a Successful College Application Essay First Draft

The Common Application