Princeton University Sees 11 Percent Increase in Early Action Applicants

pugatesPrinceton University has offered early decision admission to 697 students from a pool of 3,810 candidates who applied for the Class of 2017, school officials announced today.

The undergraduate admissions office mailed notification letters to students today. The decisions are also available to applicants via secure online access.

Princeton University reinstated the earl admission program last year for prospective students whose first college choice is Princeton. As part of the program, applicants can apply early, only to Princeton, and if admitted, they can wait to decide whether to accept Princeton’s offer until the end of the regular admission process in the spring.

“The early action pool was 11 percent larger than last year’s pool, and we were more selective, admitting 18.3 percent of the candidates compared with 21.1 percent last year,” Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said in a Princeton University Office of Communications news story. “The admission committee was impressed with the intellectual rigor of the admitted students in addition to their talents, leadership and personal qualities. We hope to have more places available in the regular decision round by taking a slightly smaller group in this cycle than we did last year.”

Of the students accepted through early action this year, 9 percent are international students, and 40 percent of the U.S. students are non-white. Fifty-one percent of the prospective students are men, and 49 percent are women. They represent 27 countries and 42 states, plus the District of Columbia.

Fifty-four percent of the admitted students come from public schools, and 12 percent are the first in their families to attend college. Fifteen percent of the admitted students are sons or daughters of Princeton alumni. Twenty-five percent of the admitted students indicated they want to study engineering.

Candidates deferred during the early action process will be reconsidered during the regular decision application process. Regular decision candidates must apply by Jan. 1 and will receive notification of their decision by late March.

In 2006, Princeton announced it would eliminate the early admission program shortly after Harvard University announced its intention to eliminate its early action program. At the time, both universities expressed the hope that other universities would follow suit. Only the University of Virginia did, and later reversed its decision. Harvard also returned to an early admission program last year for the class of 2016.

Princeton had some form of an early admission program for almost 30 years before it eliminated its early program with the class that entered in September 2008.

Harvard announced last week that 895 students were admitted to the Class of 2017 under the school’s early action program, an increase of 16 percent over last year, when 774 were admitted early. The number of applicants this year rose 14.7 percent from last year, Harvard officials said.