Freshman Applications Dip at Harvard, Penn and Columbia
January 27, 2012
Freshman applications to Harvard for the Class of 2016 fell nearly 2% after the college reinstated its early action program.
Harvard received 34,285 applications down from 34,950 a year earlier. Other members of the Ivy League, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, also reported a decline in freshman applicants following years of record increases.
Columbia reported a decline of nearly 9% for the Class of 2016. For the Class of 2015, applications to Columbia surged 33% from the year before; the increase coincided with the school's adoption of the Common Application. At Penn applications to the Class of 2016 dropped by almost two percent.
Application were not down across the board. Yale University, another member of the Ivy League, reported a nearly 6% increase in freshman applicants from last year.
About Lynn Lubell
Lynn Radlauer Lubell is the Publisher of InLikeMe.com, an internationally renowned website for college-bound students, parents and guidance counselors, and the Founder of Admission by Design, an educational consultancy.
A graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School, Lynn completed the IECA's Principles and Practices Institute for Educational Consultants and has broad expertise in college admission strategy and planning.
Lynn served on the MIT Educational Council for ten years interviewing hundreds of undergraduate applicants.
Based in Boca Raton, Florida, Admission by Design, consults with students and families in South Florida and beyond.