During Winter Break 227 PA Seniors received news of the outcome of their early applications from 44 different colleges and universities. As of January 10th, 101 out of a total 227 applicants had been accepted. Sixty-one students were accepted to Early Action schools, and the remaining 40 were accepted to Early Decision schools. Overall, 45% of students who applied early to colleges were accepted, and 55% were either deferred or rejected. Early Action admission is non-binding, while an Early Decision acceptance is binding. Because Andover’s College Counseling Office is a member of the Eastern Independent Secondary School College Admissions Personnel (EISSCAP), it does not release the total number of student applicants, deferrals, or rejections. Only the number of students accepted at each school is released. John Anderson, Director of the College Counseling Office, said that this was “another good year” for Andover, and that “a high percentage of the school found good choices.” Compared to previous years, the number of early acceptances in 2006 remained relatively static. In 2006, colleges accepted 101 PA Seniors through EA and ED, whereas 99 PA Seniors were accepted early in 2005. However, the overall data regarding early applications are still partially incomplete, since a few schools have yet to release their decisions. This was a particularly strong year for Andover applicants to Yale, with nine acceptances. MIT, The University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford admitted five, seven, and seven Andover Seniors respectively. Mr. Anderson pointed out one unexpected result. Boston College only accepted one student this year, compared to six last year. For two universities, 2007 marked the end of early admissions. Harvard admitted 13 students and Princeton admitted one, out of 26 and 8 applications respectively. Both schools will eliminate early application options for the 2007-2008 admissions round. In light of this, Mr. Anderson said that one possible impact could be that, “a greater number of students will be admitted in future years due to a decrease in the yield rate, especially for Princeton.” The yield rate is the percentage of students who decide to matriculate out of those admitted. For schools with ED, this will translate into a 100% yield and thus help them determine a portion of their freshman class before the regular application cycle. Mr. Anderson also pointed out, to the relief of many current underclassmen, that he “[doesn’t] think many colleges will jump on the bandwagon. Is it going to have a huge impact? Probably not.” Mr. Anderson cited Yale University as an example, which recently stated that it does not intend to change its early admission process. Acceptances at other Ivy League schools such as Columbia, Brown, Cornell, and Dartmouth, were down. Brown experienced the greatest drop, from eight early admits last year to three this year. Acceptances at Cornell also dropped from five last year to two this year. Dartmouth and Columbia both had one less acceptance, admitting only two PA students from early applications this year. Mr. Anderson also emphasized that it is very difficult to discern concrete trends from the information since there were only 200 early applications sent from Andover, not thousands, in which case the changes would be more visible.
