Admissions negotiates record applications

With the passage of the Jan. 1 application deadline, the Office of Admissions has begun its process of sifting through thousands of applications to make up the Class of 2014 and ’14.5.

While the final application totals are still being counted, the number appears to be around 7,960, a 15 percent increase over last year. The College has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of applications since five years ago.

“[This increase] speaks volumes for Middlebury’s appeal to some of the strongest students around the country and the world,” Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett wrote in an e-mail.

The increase in applications has not merely been the result of more prospective students of the same quality applying, either.

“We have also seen a steady increase in the quality of our applicant pool,” Clagett said, “based on the academic and other ratings that we use in the admissions office, their SAT/ACT scores, and the special talents and interests that they bring to the admissions process.”

Applicants are noting this increasing competitiveness as well.

With over 40 percent of the class accepted in the Early Decision (ED) round, leaving roughly 330 spots for the class of 2014 and 55 for ’14.5, some Regular Decision (RD) and second round ED students are worried about their chances.

Prospective student Hugh Demers, who applied RD, feels the pressure of these numbers.

“I feel that [applying RD instead of ED] could [be] the difference between getting in and not getting in,” he said.

Clagett maintains, however, that there is no advantage to applying ED, and the discrepancy in acceptance rates is due to a higher quality pool in November.

While some find troubling the appearance that incoming classes are increasingly made up of ED students, Clagett notes that ED matriculates have commonly made up over 40 percent of accepted classes in recent years. Last year, 47 percent of the Class of 2013 was accepted ED; the year before that, the percentage was 46; and in the three years prior, the percentages were 39, 38, and 41, respectively.

“There were years in the past 10 to 15 years when 45-48 percent of the class was admitted early,” Clagett said.

While this increase can be explained by a corresponding increase in ED applicant quality — average SAT scores in this group have risen almost 80 points over the past four years — it remains true that a class made up with more ED applicants requires less financial aid.

Assistant Director of Student Financial Services Jacqueline Davies acknowledged this trend.

“If a higher percentage of the incoming class is admitted early decision, it follows that the amount of aid would be somewhat less,” Davies said.

Senior admissions fellow Kelly Bennion ’10 confirmed that the admissions counselors put in a great deal of time into looking at an applicant’s entire application, not merely one facet, endeavoring to create a strong student body.