Elite Colleges Report Admissions Records (Again)

It's the time of year that elite colleges and universities report on the shrinking percentage of applicants they admitted this year. The low admission rates aren't actually a surprise, since many of these colleges already announced new records in the number of applicants (and had no plans for significant increases in their class size). The figures from Harvard University tend to attract the most attention because of the very low admit rate (5.9 percent this year). With its prestige and very high yield rate (the percentage of accepted applicants who enroll), Harvard's admit rate tends to be among the lowest most years. Other institutions announcing admissions data this week include Yale University and Williams College. Among the institutions announcing drops in admit rates were Cornell University (16.2 percent, down from 18 percent), Johns Hopkins University (17.7 percent, down from 18.3 percent) and the University of Pennsylvania (12.3 percent, down from 12.4 percent).