As we begin another admissions cycle in 2018-2019, we’re still catching up with some of the latest admissions season’s most notable broken records. Case in point, Swarthmore. The tony Main Line Philadelphia college received roughly 10,700 first-year applications competing for the approximately 420 spots in Swarthmore’s Class of 2022. In order to yield the desired magic 420, Swarthmore sent out 980 letters of admission to applicants who utilized the college’s Early Decision I, Early Decision II, and Regular Decision admissions deadlines.

This means that Swarthmore’s overall first-year acceptance rate has crossed the magic ten percent milestone. Last year, Swarthmore’s overall acceptance rate was eleven percent. This year, despite tears being shed world-wide at receiving a Swarthmore rejection, you may have heard the distinct sound of popping – the popping of Champagne Bottles in Swarthmore’s admissions office and president’s office, as the college’s overall acceptance rate now hovers around nine percent.

Based on previously reported stats from last year, it’s actually not nearly as hard to get into Swarthmore Early Decision (though we don’t have separate stats about EDI vs. EDII). The Early Decision acceptance rate last year was thirty-four percent. This puts Swarthmore in the category of super users of Early Decision, colleges at which the Early Decision acceptance rate is three times greater than its Regular Decision acceptance rate.

For the love of all that is good in this world, IF SWARTHMORE IS YOUR FIRST CHOICE COLLEGE, AND YOU ARE AN ACTUAL COMPETITIVE APPLICANT, APPLY ED! No official numbers on this year’s ED vs. Regular breakdown, though we can expect that spread to be revealed in the months ahead when colleges report for the Common Data Set. In the meantime, may we respectfully request that Swarthmore release its ED I vs. ED II application numbers and acceptance rates?

In other news that we must report but which you don’t care about nearly as much as what was mentioned above, twenty-four percent of those accepted to Swarthmore this admissions cycle identified as first-generation college students (but does anyone actually fact-check?), and California is the most highly represented home state of those students accepted to Swarthmore this year, coming in before students accepted from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Illinois in descending order.

Finally, Swarthmore is happy to boast of its students’ increasing geographic diversity; students accepted this year represent sixty-three nations, all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Don’t doubt that those from in and around the Main Line itself will likely make up the largest demographic of students who ultimately matriculate.