After months of nervous anticipation by admissions officials, America's war on terrorism seems to have not adversely affected undergraduate applications to Duke. Rather, the Sept. 11 attacks and the subsequent events may have contributed to a sharp increase in high schoolers applying early.
Following a national trend of increased early applications, the number of students applying for early decision increased by 22 percent over last year, from 1,299 to a record 1,590. Possible reasons for the increase are hard to identify, but much of the increase came from students along the East Coast, said Christoph Guttentag, director of undergraduate admissions.
"Part of it was people wanting to be within driving distance of home," Guttentag said. "No one really knew what to expect after September 11. Had it gone the other way, had we all seen a drop, I don't think that any of us would have been surprised."
In addition, the University extended its deadline for applications because of delays in mail delivery due to anthrax attacks.
Last spring's national championship in men's basketball undoubtedly had some effect, Guttentag said. Calling the impact of the national exposure difficult to quantify, he added that many applicants cited basketball as one of many reasons for applying.
Increased recruiting efforts may also have led to more applications, as admissions officers took advantage of an additional $500,000 in recruiting money allocated under the University's long-range plan. The funds allow recruiters to travel more and meet with potential students to try to increase geographic, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity.
"We were given more resources to recruit, and we did," Guttentag said.
Several other top universities have also reported increases in early applications, but none as large as Duke's. Yale University saw a 17 percent increase, the University of Pennsylvania a 7 percent increase and Harvard University an increase of less than 1 percent.
Despite the increase in applicants, Duke will accept about the same number from the pool as last year, when 501 were accepted early. Guttentag said accepting more students early would restrict choices in the regular pool, where Duke receives 90 percent of its applications.
"We want to be responsive to people who know Duke is their first choice, and to this much larger group of students who aren't in a position in October of their senior year to make a firm commitment to one school," he said.
About 24 percent of early applicants listed themselves as members of minority groups, down slightly from 26 percent last year. Individually, each racial category saw an increase in the number of applicants, but the largest rise came among black students. Their applications rose 35 percent over last year, from 60 to 81. The number of Latino applicants rose 3 percent, from 64 to 66, and the number of Asian applicants rose 4 percent, from 143 to 149.
The increase is encouraging for the University's efforts to recruit more black students, said junior Troy Clair, president of the Black Student Alliance. He cited continuing recruitment efforts as one possible factor in the rise, particularly after last year's Duke Student Movement protests occurred during black student recruitment weekend.
"I know many students in the Class of 2005 whose matriculation visits happened to coincide with the Duke Student Movement, and they say they were really encouraged by the demonstrations, so maybe some of that carried over into the Class of 2006," Clair said.
Guttentag declined to offer specifics on the academic strength of the application pool, but said the distribution of SATs and other measures was similar to previous years even with the increase in applications. The Pratt School of Engineering saw a slightly higher increase in applications over Trinity College. Engineering applications rose 30 percent, compared with 21 percent in Trinity.
U-Wire contributed to this story.
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