Undergraduate Applications Increase to All-Time Highs

Bloomberg
January 14th, 2011

Applications for undergraduate admissions to Harvard University and Columbia University rose to all-time highs, making it harder than ever before to get into the colleges.

Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, received almost 35,000 applications for the next academic year, a 15 percent increase from 30,489 for the current year. Applications to Columbia, in New York, rose 32 percent to a 34,587, from 26,179 a year earlier.

Harvard admitted 6.9 percent of applicants last year, and Columbia 9 percent. The most-selective colleges are setting application records because students are seeking a chance at “the luxury brands of higher education,” said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research at the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Arlington, Virginia.

Harvard is the richest university in the U.S., with an endowment of $27.4 billion last June 30. It is a member of the Ivy League, a group of eight universities in the northeast U.S.

At Columbia, also an Ivy League member, the university for the first time used the Common Application, a form accepted by more than 400 institutions and helps high school students apply to multiple colleges.

Applications at Stanford University near Palo Alto, California, climbed 6.8 percent to 34,200 from 32,022 a year ago.

The University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League member in Philadelphia, received a record 30,800 applications for undergraduate admission. Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said that 30,605 students, the most ever, sought undergraduate admission.

Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; the University of Chicago; Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge; and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, also received record numbers of undergraduate applications.

The percentage of students applying to 7 or more colleges almost doubled to 23 percent in 2009 from 12 percent a decade earlier. As colleges receive more applications, the admit rates go down, and students are hedging their bets by applying to more schools.

The cost to attend Harvard for the 2010-2011 academic year is $50,724, according to the university. Harvard was established in 1636. About 6,650 undergraduates are among the total of about 21,000 students.

I'm Ron Denaro and thanks for joining College Campus Chatter today!

Ron Denaro is the president of College Campus Trips, a tour company providing high school students with tours of college campuses, nationwide. For more information, call (954) 567-5751 or e-mail: ron@collegecampustrips.com