Duke's pool of applicants grows by leaps and bounds, regardless of a national trend of decreasing applications to elite universities.
Early application trends tend to vary broadly across the many universities, which offer Early Action and Early Decision options. Each year, however, the more selective institutions across the country have experienced an increase in applications. This year marks the first time in recent memory that multiple colleges have seen a significant drop in interested high school seniors.
After discontinuing their single-choice Early Action programs in the mid-2000s, Harvard, Princeton and University of Virginia elected to reinstate them for the class of 2016. They all received an incredible volume of applications: 4,245, 3,547 and 11,417 respectively. Notably, this restoration had a negative affect on other top ranked universities, such as Yale, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania and Stanford. Each of these universities saw drops in their application numbers, from one percent to 18 percent. Even Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with its non-restrictive Early Action program saw a 4.7 percent drop in applications. In an age where more high school seniors are applying to college each year, it is easy to assume that these drops are a direct result of the new early application programs.
Even with these new programs, Duke’s Early Decision application numbers soared. An increase of 23 percent from last year, the admissions office received 2,716 applications, of which they accepted 650. This constitutes 38 percent of the incoming class of 2016.
Kelly Williams, a Trinity junior, is surprised at this result.
“Considering our exposure to the world is mostly through sports and scandals, I would expect the application numbers to drop,” she said.
Some could chalk the increase up to Duke’s wide appeal. It’s social, smart and sports-friendly. The campus is to die for and the weather is (almost) unbeatable.
“Duke is a very well-rounded school," junior Ashvin Kapur said. "Even if you think you know what you want to do when you come into college, if you change you’re mind, there are still other options. Unlike the Ivy League, we have a strong sense of cooperation and community. There also aren’t any nets under our bridges....”
Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, Christoph Guttentag, could not be reached to comment on whether recruiting efforts have increased or changed.
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