Admissions Blog

Regular Decision at Emory University becomes more selective

Posted on March 30, 2023 by admissions.blog Leave a Comment

Emory University’s campus.

Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, has become more selective to get into when applying Regular Decision.

While approximately 78%, of admission offers at Emory are made Regular Decision and roughly 22% of offers are extended to Early Decision applicants, that doesn’t mean an applicant’s statistical odds of getting into Emory Regular Decision are better than getting in Early Decision. The university, which accepts first-year applicants into two colleges – Emory College and Oxford College, has shared that in 2023 Emory College’s Regular Decision acceptance rate was 8.4% and Oxford College’s Regular Decision acceptance rate was 15.1% whereas Emory’s overall Early Decision I acceptance rate earlier in the 2022-2023 admissions cycle was roughly 37%. Last year (2022), Emory accepted 9% of students who applied Regular Decision.

2023-2024 Regular Decision (RD) Applicant Pool

	Emory College	Oxford College
RD Applicants	29,330	18,612
RD Admits	2,463	2,815
Offered Spot on Wait List	5,663 (plus additional 199 placed on wait list from ED II)	2,991 (plus additional 37 placed on wait list from ED II)

Regular Decision Admitted Class Composition

	Emory College RD Class	Oxford College RD Class
Mean Recalculated GPA	3.92	3.90
25-75th Percentile Max Testing (of students who opted to share their SAT or ACT scores with us)	1470-1560	1470-1550
% Admitted Without SAT/ACT	36%	33%
# of States Represented	50 plus DC, PR, VI, Mariana Islands, and Guam	49 plus DC, PR, and Guam
# of Non-US Citizenships	71	58

Of course, final acceptance rates are contingent on what action occurs on Emory’s waitlist.

Interestingly, only roughly one third of those accepted to both Emory College and Oxford College Regular Decision did not submit ACT or SAT scores. These numbers were a bit lower than numbers released earlier this cycle when 38% of the admitted Emory College Early Decision class and 41% of the Early Decision class admitted to Oxford College applied without an ACT or SAT score.

For Regular Decision at Emory College, nearly 22% of domestic admits would be the first generation in their family to graduate from college. The most represented high school states in the admitted RD class are Georgia, California, New York, Texas, and Florida respectively and the most represented high school countries in the admitted RD class are India, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Singapore respectively. Approximately 9% of the Emory College RD admitted class are from rural or small town communities across the United States.

For Regular Decision at Oxford College, approximately 16% of domestic admits would be the first generation in their family to graduate from college. The most represented high school states in the admitted RD class, in order, are California, Georgia, New York, Texas, and Florida. The most represented high school countries in the admitted RD class, in order, are India, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom and China. Finally, as was the case with Emory College, approximately 9% of the Oxford College RD admitted class are from rural or small town communities across the United States.

Ultimately, the university is aiming to enroll 1,420 students at Emory College and 525 students (up from 450 last year) at Oxford College this fall.

Emory will remain test-optional for first-year and transfer applicants during the 2023-2024 admissions cycle.

Brown’s Regular Decision Acceptance Rate Now 3.8%

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Brown University’s Regular Decision admission decisions will be posted on Thursday, March 30 at 7:00 p.m. US Eastern Time, and, as in previous years, most students will not be thrilled by the decision they receive.

According to Logan Powell, Brown’s Dean of Admission, Brown received 51,302 applications for the Class of 2027, which represents a 1% increase over last year and makes the Class of 2027 applicant pool the largest in the university’s history. Brown will make 1,730 Regular Decision offers of admission to the incoming Class of 2027 in addition to the 879 Early Decision admission offers made in December. The overall acceptance rate for the 2022-2023 admissions cycle was 5%, the Regular Decision acceptance rate was 3.8%, and the Early Decision acceptance rate was 13%.

A total of 18% of accepted students represent the first generation in their family to attend college, and this year’s admitted students come from 90 countries, all 50 American states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The top countries represented outside the United States are China, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, and South Korea.

Of the 4,192 applicants to the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), 74 students were admitted with a 2% acceptance rate. Of the 916 applicants to the Brown-RISD Dual Degree Program, 20 students were admitted, also with a 2% acceptance rate.

If spaces in Brown’s entering class are available after the May 1 reply by date, Brown will make additional admission offers to students on its waitlist; yet, all spaces in the Program in Liberal Medical Education have been filled. The number of students admitted from the waitlist will depend on how many students accept Brown’s admission offers by May 1. In recent years, the number of waitlist spaces available in Brown’s incoming class has ranged from 15 to 120. Waitlist activity will conclude by mid-summer, and more information on the waitlist is available here.

Meanwhile, Brown will host two admitted student programs on campus for the Class of 2027. A Day on College Hill (ADOCH) will take place on April 14 and 21 for students who are able to visit Providence in person. Brown will also continue to support its admitted students with a variety of virtual programming that provides opportunities to explore, learn, ask questions and connect to Brown’s campus while showcasing Brown’s vibrant community.

NYU First Year Applications Spike 13%

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

With its rapidly rising application numbers and rapidly dropping acceptance rate, New York University (NYU) is starting to live up to the classic lyric from the Frank Sinatra standard, “New York, New York:” “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”

NYU’s notable application growth from first year applicants has led to the private New York City-based university receiving a startling 98,000 Regular Decision applications during the 2022-2023 admissions cycle. All in all, NYU received nearly 120,000 applications for its Class of 2027, which represents an increase of 13% from last year. In fact, NYU saw increases across all of its campuses and all of its schools in New York. NYU also has major campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai.

The increased number of applications, combined with consistently growing yield rates over the past few years, has made for an incredibly competitive admission cycle that will lead to an overall acceptance rate “a number of percentage points lower than last year” according to Jonathan B. Williams, NYU’s Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Admissions.

Last year, (the 2021-2022 admissions cycle), NYU received 105,000 first year applications and had an overall acceptance rate of 12.2%. This means once it’s finalized, NYU’s overall acceptance rate will now be in or quite close to the single digits. As recently as the 2016-2017 admissions cycle, NYU was accepting over 20% of all applicants; that cycle NYU only received 67,000 applications.

Regular Decision applicants will receive one of several different decisions on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 depending on the options selected on their applications:

Admitted Students
In the vast majority of cases, students who are admitted receive an offer of admission to their first-choice campus and school. Students not admitted to their first choice are then considered for admission to an alternate choice school or campus. Students will receive only one decision from NYU, and no students are admitted to any campus, program, or major that they did not explicitly indicate interest in on their application.

Waitlisted Students
With such an incredibly competitive applicant pool, NYU’s Undergraduate Admissions team needed to make difficult decisions about students who presented very competitive applications. Students offered a place on NYU’s waitlist will be required to confirm that they wish to continue to be considered for admission should space become available. Typically, NYU does not review its waitlist until after May 1.

Waitlisted students may be admitted to begin in Fall 2023 or admitted to programs with Spring 2024 start options, specifically: Liberal Studies Core and select majors within the School of Professional Studies, Tandon School of Engineering, and the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.

According to Williams, NYU’s waitlist comprises less than 15% of its applicant pool, and it is not ranked. Waitlisted applicants should not send any additional information beyond what is requested on the waitlist response form.

Denied Students
While rejection is hard, at least it may be a bit easier knowing that nine out of ten NYU applicants are meeting the same fate. Hopefully such applicants had some safety options on their college lists.

Northwestern Releases Regular Decisions, Class of 2027 Statistics

Posted on March 24, 2023 by Craig Meister

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.

Rice admissions decisions released March 27

Posted on March 23, 2023 by admissions.blog 1 Comment

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

Posted on March 19, 2023 by Craig Meister Leave a Comment

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.”

Overall, as of this time, for its Class of 2027, WashU admitted 3,644 students as follows: 2,401 students to its College of Arts & Sciences, 364 to the Olin Business School, 236 to the Sam Fox School (101 for Architecture and 135 for Art), 636 to its McKelvey School of Engineering, and 27 to its Beyond Boundaries Program. As a result, WashU’s overall admit rate for the 2022-2023 remains at at roughly 11%.

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.

A Primer for College Admissions Decisions

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Patrick O'Connor 2 Comments

We’re about three weeks away from the height of the release of college admissions decisions, the time of year when students pull their hair out either waiting to hear or musing over what they’ve heard. Along with trying to ease student angst, college admissions veterans know they can expect an inbox full of articles featuring the following content:

Record High Applications at Highly Selective Schools
Highly Selective Schools Report New Lows in Admit Rates (yes, these two are related, but most Americans don’t understand this, thanks to the way we teach math in this country, so…)
Calls for Equity in Admissions Follow Record Application Year

We can expect these articles because they are written every year, partly to make an official record of what actually has happened, partly to supply some kind of solace to students who didn’t get the admissions news they had hoped (“See Son? It was harder than ever to get in”) or to fatten the praise of those who did (“Wow! I beat the odds in the Most. Competitive. Year. Ever!”)

To balance these “the sky is falling” articles, I write one that tries to keep everyone on an even keel, so they can provide some stability to the students and parents who are new at this, or who are doing it again, and forgot what it felt like the first time. Hardly anyone notices the piece I write—it’s apparently more fun to be out there on rocky seas than to be safe in the harbor—but in the interest of trying to offer some support, here we go:

Not all applications are created equal. A college that reports a 5 percent admission rate doesn’t mean a particular student’s odds of getting in are 5 percent; it means the college admits 5 out of every 100 applications it receives. Put another way, a student with a C average applying to Swarthmore doesn’t have the same “chance” of being admitted as a student with a 3.9. Juniors should keep this in mind.
Much of the college experience depends far more on what the student puts into the experience than where they experience it. A former student was admitted to a Seven Sisters college, which then proceeded to gap her in financial aid. She ended up at a public university, where she basically ran the Global Studies program where she earned a degree. This included fulfilling her desire to do a semester abroad in South Africa, even though her college didn’t offer study abroad there. She simply registered as a guest student at another college that did. Tell me she would have had any of those opportunities at the Seven Sisters school. Go ahead.
Notions of the need for change in the college admission process are overblown. It takes about 20 minutes to apply to most colleges, since they require neither essays nor teacher letters. Since that’s about the same amount of time it takes to get to another level in Mario Brothers 812, it’s pretty safe to say most students can complete this task without life-altering stress.
Notions of change in the college admission process are simplistic, Part I. Admissions observers had a field day when COVID drove many competitive colleges to go test optional, a change that was gaining steam even before 2019. Two years later, we now find a rise in “test optional strategies” from test prep advisors who will advise students on which tests to take, and which scores to send—all for a fee. Similarly, we see some competitive colleges admitting fewer—far fewer—test optional students than those who submit scores, but deciding not to report that to the major public, since the “test optional” moniker is so highly valued. The result? A change that was supposed to make applying to college easier has made it harder in many cases, except at colleges where the admit rates were generous to begin with—and those are the schools where applying takes 20 minutes, and application reform wasn’t necessary.
Notions of change in the college admissions process are simplistic, Part II. Undeterred by the lack of real parity brought by many test optional policies, many reform advocates are now turning to essays and teacher letters of recommendation as the next parts to go in the current process. This leads to two questions:
- If you take out all parts of the current application process (some are even saying grades shouldn’t have to be reported), what do you replace them with?
- Do you honestly think whatever you answered in the last question can’t also be gamed to favor the rich? Interviews? Community Service? Cake Baking? Put any life experience or skill in the mix of college applications, and in a year, a horde of tutors will crop up that will give an edge to students who can afford their services. That will be very hard to beat.
My annual plea for more counselor training in college counseling. If it’s safe to conclude that any admissions process will favor students who understand it, it’s reasonable to conclude it will favor any student who works with a counselor who understands it. So, instead of changing the admissions process, how about leveling the playing field by making sure all counselors receive deep training in college counseling? Less than 5 percent of all school counselor training programs devote any time to instruction in college counseling, and that sometimes only consists of how to register for the SAT. Private school college counselors have greater access to professional development that keeps their already keen college counseling skills sharp. Most public school counselors got their counselor training in a program that gave them no college counseling skills at all. Which group needs to be better trained in the first place?

That should be all you need to make it through the media madness of the next month. Release the hounds.

What Needs to Change in College Admissions

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Patrick O'Connor 1 Comment

The ups and downs of the quarantine gave college admissions officers and school counselors a taste of application life to come, as the birth rate for high school graduates continues to slide, and the need to develop new approaches to recruit students increases. As the profession continues to try and improve college access, and knowing that small differences can make a big difference, here are some considerations for both sides of the desk to ponder this summer over a well-deserved glass of lemonade:

Colleges—move your deadline dates. November 1 (early applications), January 1 (regular applications), and May 1 (many deposits) are all big dates in the college application world—and they all fell on a Sunday or a holiday this year. I don’t understand this, since the admissions offices weren’t open, and the vast majority of high school seniors had no access to counselors or other application helpers the day of and before the deadlines.

This needs to change. Yes, students need to be responsible, and should learn to plan ahead—but perhaps that lesson is better applied to deadlines for things they’ve done before (like papers), not with things they are doing for the first time (like applying to college). The first Tuesday in November, the second Tuesday in January, and the first Tuesday in May would solve this problem nicely, increasing the quality and quantity of applications to boot. Georgia Tech made the move, and they get kaboodles of applications. It’s an easy, but important, change.

High Schools—stop working holidays. Moving the January 1 deadline to a date when high schools are in session is also overdue for school counselors, who have taken a serious shellacking this year with all the student mental health issues arising from COVID. School counselors have always been overworked, but never able to use the December holidays to recover, since they were expected to help their students make January 1 college deadlines.

It’s time to take a stand. Assuming the colleges move their deadlines, counselors need to learn to let go. Send a note to all senior families early in November, letting them know your vacation is—well, a vacation. If you really can’t let go of your students for that long—or if the colleges unwisely cling to January 1– set two days of vacation for online office hours, and take a breath all the other days. You have mastered online office hours this year. Let them be your friend.

Colleges—keep innovating. One (and perhaps the only) upside of the quarantine was the ability of college admissions offices to adapt major chunks of their traditional approach to recruitment. Test optional, drive-thru tours, and online high school visits suggested it might be OK for everyone to get their hopes up, that some real college admissions reform was in the air.

Yes. Well.

In a post-vaccine world, we see more signs of returning to “normal” than creating new normal. Reinventing the entire admissions process is no easy feat, to be sure, but how hard might it be for admissions offices to spend half a day this summer doing “What ifs” to one part of the application process? Do that for five years, and you have a new admissions paradigm, and a more accessible one—the thing you say you keep wanting.

High schools— mental health and college access aren’t either/or. I will legitimately blow my top if I read one more post from a high school counselor insisting that the increase in COVID-related mental health needs makes it impossible to do any effective college counseling.

School counseling as a profession has long been showing a mental health bias at the expense of quality college counseling, and this year just seems to have widened the gap. Counselor training programs plant the seeds of this bias— training programs devote about 7 classes to mental health training, and none to college counseling—and all of this must stop, if only because the dichotomy is a false one.

Discouraged, depressed high school students light up like a hilltop church on Christmas Eve when I tell them college gives them a fresh start to life and learning, proof enough that college counseling affects mental health. That, plus the American School Counselor Association says college counseling is part of the job. Counselors truly are overworked, so they can’t do everything they want in any part of counseling. That said, college can still be part of a key to a better self. More counselors need to see that, and act on it.

Everyone—stop beating up on the Ivies. The Ivies and their equally tough-to-get-into institutions largely decided to go test optional this year. For some reason, this gave a lot of students with B averages the hope that they too could pahk the cah in the yahd, now that they didn’t have to reveal their test scores.

So—more students applied to the Ivies this year than last year. The Ivies didn’t admit more students this year than last year. That means their admit rate had to go down, and more students were denied.

That isn’t news—it’s math. And if you want to blame the Ivies for encouraging students to apply who didn’t really stand a chance of getting in, you’re going to need to make a thousand more jackets for that club. If you think the Ivies take too few Pell-eligible students, say that. If you think they admit too many legacies, stay that. But don’t beat them up for proving the laws of basic ratios. Any other college in their shoes would have to do the same thing. (Besides, it’s the national media who has left our society with the impression that there are only 25 colleges in America.)

Everyone—about Kiddos. It’s no secret that college is largely a time of youth, especially with the expansion of adolescence into the early twenties and beyond. But college is also a time to help young people embrace the opportunities of adulthood, skills and attitudes that sometimes require setting the desires of self to one side.

This goal would be more easily achieved if we saw students—and if they saw themselves– as capable of embracing a larger sense of self by referring to them as students, not Kiddos. They don’t need to grow up in a hurry or, with the right kind of help, succumb to the media images of college choice as a high stakes pressure cooker. But they also need something more than just a pat on the head and a verbal affirmation that’s the equivalent of a lollipop. Let’s try calling them students.