Sharp Decline in Early Acceptance at Elite Schools

Getting accepted into a top college has seemingly become even more competitive during the Covid 19 epidemic.

Colleges had already been posting extremely competitive acceptance rates, with eight percent, or fewer, applicants gaining acceptance to the top tier schools, according to statistics from U.S. News and World Reports. These institutions include Stanford, Columbia, Harvard, California Institute of Technology, Princeton, University of Chicago, Yale, Brown, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Pomona, Dartmouth, Duke, Julliard, U.S. Naval Academy and University of Pennsylvania. To increase their chances of acceptance, students frequently choose one university and apply early decision or restrictive early action. 

But the fall of 2020 saw a dramatic rise in early admission applications, making it even tougher to gain acceptance to these highly selective schools.  At Harvard and Yale restrictive early action applications rose by 57% and 38%, respectively, according to The Wall Street Journal.  The result is that, although both of these schools accepted 14% of their early applicants last year, only 7.4% were accepted to Harvard and 10% to Yale this academic year.

Binding early decision applications likewise rose at other Ivy League institutions: 49% at Columbia, 29% at Dartmouth, 23% at University of Pennsylvania, and 22% at Brown.  Princeton University suspended its early admission option this year, and Cornell University would not release its application and acceptance numbers.    

The massive increase of applicants, and resultant decline in acceptance rates, were a surprise to many in the college industry.  After all, many students were unable to take SAT exams, participate in sports or other extracurricular activities, or even attend classes in person.  But they may have gotten a false sense of security from the fact that more than 1,500 colleges and universities – including all eight Ivies – did not require SAT or ACT scores from applicants.  Of course, students with stellar test scores did submit their scores for consideration.  In addition, virtual outreach events allowed colleges to reach more students than they had in the past when they relied mainly on in-person college visits to entice future applicants.

Another obstacle to students, applying for college admission for the Fall of 2021, is that there are fewer seats available at many elite universities.  A large number of students who planned to start college in the Fall of 2020 decided to “defer” their enrollment in order to have a “normal” college experience once Covid 19 restrictions are lifted. They will instead show up on campus in the Fall of 2021, decreasing the availability for current high school seniors. At Harvard University, for example, 349 students from the Fall 2020 entering class deferred their enrollment to the Fall 2021.

College acceptance is yet another area of life that was negatively impacted by Covid 19.  

Susan Alaimo is the founder of Collegebound Review. For the past 25 years, Collegebound Review's Ivy League educated tutors have prepared students for the PSAT®, SAT®, ACT®, Subject Tests®, AP courses, and all high school subjects. Visit www.CollegeboundReview.com or call 908-369-5362