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Ivy League Acceptance Rates 2013 (Brace Yourselves, Folks)

April 08, 2013 :: Admissionado Team

Ivy League Acceptance Rates

College admissions decisions have been rolling out this past week. What’s the scoop? Well, folks, it isn’t pretty. For 2013, all the Ivy League acceptance rates, except for one, decreased. And they were already pretty low to begin with.

You may be thinking, “WHYYYYYYYYY???!!!!”

If so, we understand.

The Stats

According to Time Magazine, Harvard was the most selective with a 5.8% acceptance rate—their all-time low. 33,531 students applied. (Sometimes when we read these news stories we feel like Seth Meyers on SNL. We just go, “REALLY?!”)

Of the 29,610 applicants, Yale admitted 6.72%. Columbia admitted 6.89%.

Stanford, not an Ivy (but might as well be with its rate of selectivity,) admitted 5.69% of the 38,828 students that applied, making it MORE SELECTIVE THAN HARVARD.

See the rest of the stats in the Time article.

What to Make of All This

Admissions officers don’t take pleasure in rejecting so many students, says Richard Shaw, Stanford’s dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid. “We’re not doing that and then gloating,” he says in the Time article. “I’m disappointed by it. My message is, I’m really sorry to all those kids who are really amazing and we can’t accommodate.”

Plus, you have to keep in mind that these numbers are tricky. They don’t necessarily mean colleges are admitting fewer students—but that they’re getting waaaay more applications than in past years. So try not to freak out too much when you see these numbers, and instead focus on crushing the Common App and putting together the strongest application you possibly can…which you were gonna do anyway, right? So nothing has changed here.

So who was the lone wolf of the Ivy League that actually increased acceptance? Dartmouth. Last year it was 9.8%. This year it was 10.05%.

Yes. Really.

 

(Image source here.)

By Emily Herzlin, Admissionado Senior Editor