Yale applications for class of 2013--from Yale Daily News

Record number of applications for class of 2013

Raymond Carlson

Staff Reporter

Published Wednesday, January 28, 2009

 Yale received a record 25,925 applications to the class of 2013, the admissions office announced Tuesday.

The number of applicants increased by 13.6 percent since last year, when they increased 16.6 percent from the year before, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeff Brenzel said. Of the applicants, 5,557 applied under Yale’s early action single decision program, while 20,368 applied regular decision. A gap persists in the proportion of male and female applicants; 55 percent of applicants to the class of 2013 are female, Brenzel said.

Yale will accept between 1,900 and 2,000 applicants overall, Brenzel said, which would produce an acceptance rate between 7.3 and 7.7 percent — a new record for selectivity.

Yale’s early applicants — of whom 742 were admitted in December — already faced a record-low acceptance rate of 13.4 percent. Yale rejected 38.3 percent of early applicants while deferring 47.6 percent to the regular pool.

.........

Yale joins four other Ivy League universities that have announced application totals so far — including Harvard, Princeton and Brown universities, as well as Dartmouth College — in setting a new application record.

The 55-45 split between female and male applicants mirrors last year’s gender gap. But despite the higher number of female applicants, more men than women were offered a place in the class of 2012. The increasing divergence in acceptance rates for Yale’s male and female applicants is under ongoing examination by the Yale College Committee on Admissions.

The continued gap in male and female applicants may cause women to brush up against a tough acceptance rate, Reider noted, but he said it will not come at the expense of the quality of Yale’s incoming class.

“Even if the applicant pool is skewed, there are enough strong boys so that you don’t weaken the class,” he said. “Yale can take 50 percent boys, and you’re not taking people who don’t deserve to be there.”

Harvard announced that 50.7 percent of its applicants were men, while Princeton said it had received an even balance between male and female applicants, which is consistent with past trends for both schools.

The 23,012 applicants still waiting on a verdict from Yale will be notified of their admissions decisions by early April.