Cornell Sees Increase In Freshman Applicants

Continuing the University’s steady increase in applicants in recent years, Cornell received an all-time high of 34,192 applications for the Class of 2013, according to an e-mail sent to the Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network. 1,119 more students applied this admissions year than last year, representing a 3-percent increase over the 33,073 applicants for the Class of 2012.
This statistic follows a 10-percent increase in the number of early decision applicants reported in December. In the early decision cycle, Cornell admitted 1,249 students, the highest number of students to ever be granted admission early. Should Cornell stick to its past goal of filling each undergraduate class with 3,050 students, the University is looking for 1,801 more high schoolers to matriculate. However, the University has not yet released information on the projected size for the class of 2013.
Given the increased number of applicants and the higher percentage of the class admitted early, many, including Matt Nagowski ’05, writer for the blog MetaEzra, believe that Cornell is poised to have an overall admit rate of less than 20 percent for the first time.
Meanwhile, other schools are experiencing an increase in the numbers of applications, proving that the financial crisis has not deterred people from applying to the nation’s top universities. The number of applicants to Princeton increased by 2 percent. Applicants to Harvard rose 5 percent. Dartmouth posted a 9-percent increase in applications, while Yale’s applications increased by 14 percent. Applicants to Brown increased by 21 percent. The University of Pennsylvania and Columbia have yet to release admissions numbers.
For now, Cornell’s admissions offices have an intensive few months ahead of them reviewing applications. Applicants will be notified of their decisions between February and April, depending on college.
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