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Similar news just came out here at Cornell: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March13/Admissions2013.html http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March13/Admissio

by jonemo 14y ago

Similar news just came out here at Cornell: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March13/Admissions2013.html http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March13/Admissions2013.h... The real news both in Cornell and Stanford is that more people applied but more or less the same number of places as always is available. My first guess was that this might be simply because there were more births in the years that have now reached college age, but that seems to not be true (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Vital_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta...). Or it could be an economic effect, namely that people who couldn't afford sending their kids to college during the crisis years now can. Or maybe universities really just did better PR and therefore get more applications. Would be nice to have this data for every university to see if the same effect applies everywhere.

wilfra 14y ago
You're assuming all of the applicants are American. That's a very incorrect assumption. I would guess nearly all of the increase is international with China accounting for > 50% by itself.
- seanmcdirmid 14y ago
  Yes. Even Xi Jingping's daughter attends Harvard. The poor farmer kids who test well can go to Qinghua or PKU, all the kids whose parents have any money are going abroad. A bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.
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zevyoura 14y ago
Students also now apply to many more schools than they did in the past, especially when you add in the Common App, which Stanford and Cornell both participate in.
superprime 14y ago
It's not about the cost of college, at least here. Places like Stanford and Princeton have generous enough financial aid programs that if you can't pay for it, they will (presuming you're accepted).
- jonemo 14y ago
  True. Having applied to one of the two I'd like to point out that this is (with very few exceptions) only true for domestic students.

by jonemo 14y ago

wilfra 14y ago

You're assuming all of the applicants are American. That's a very incorrect assumption. I would guess nearly all of the increase is international with China accounting for > 50% by itself.

seanmcdirmid 14y ago
Yes. Even Xi Jingping's daughter attends Harvard. The poor farmer kids who test well can go to Qinghua or PKU, all the kids whose parents have any money are going abroad. A bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.

deleted 14y ago

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zevyoura 14y ago

Students also now apply to many more schools than they did in the past, especially when you add in the Common App, which Stanford and Cornell both participate in.

superprime 14y ago

It's not about the cost of college, at least here. Places like Stanford and Princeton have generous enough financial aid programs that if you can't pay for it, they will (presuming you're accepted).

jonemo 14y ago
True. Having applied to one of the two I'd like to point out that this is (with very few exceptions) only true for domestic students.