Many of America’s top undergraduate schools are seeing an increase in the number of applications and a declining acceptance rate at the early decision stage for this 2023 academic year cycle.[1] If the trend continues through to the regular admissions cycle, it can mean the admissions offices of popular schools will be more selective. They will select a smaller percentage of total applicants.
There are stages to the school’s evaluation process. One level eliminates some students after examining transcripts and standardized test scores. Then a deeper dive involves extracurricular activities and essays or personal statements.
The logical next conclusion is that those deep dive areas will become even more important than in prior years when schools had fewer applicants. So, when you prepare your essay, remember, that essay may become the difference in acceptance between you and another applicant with comparable transcripts and test scores.
Put another way, the more colleges admit students who applied in the early stage (by November 1) where they bind themselves to the school, the fewer slots remain open to the rest of the students who apply later. This is not surprising. The yield can be higher if the early applicants are stronger students academically, as is often the case. If the school has a total overall number of applicants to admit, and a larger number of students are early admits, fewer slots are available for students who apply later. That dynamic creates a more discriminating analysis of applications post-early decision applicants. As a result, essays may have a heightened role in a school’s decision-making process for applicants in the regular admission cycle.
[1] See Christopher Rim, Harvard Announces Increases In Early Admissions Acceptance Rates—While Yale’s Hit Historic Lows https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherrim/2023/12/15/harvard-announces-increases-in-early-admissions-acceptance-rates-while-yales-hit-historic-lows/amp/ (December 15, 2023)
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