Northwestern accepted 93 more early decision applicants this year than last year, a 22 percent increase that could translate to a lower acceptance rate for regular decision applicants, an NU official said.
Out of 918 early decision applicants, 514 were mailed acceptance letters on Dec. 14, said Associate Provost for University Enrollment Rebecca Dixon.
The number of early acceptance applications also had increased by about 23 percent. Last year, NU accepted 421 early decision applicants.
Dixon said NU probably will admit fewer regular applicants this year.
“We don’t want a freshman class any bigger than 1,925; we have about 100 more (accepted) to early decision than we did a year ago,” she said. “Probably, we would not have to admit as many.”
More students from Illinois applied to NU this year than in years past, partly to stay closer to home after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Dixon said.
“The increase was disproportionately from Illinois and we always accept more from there,” she said. “It’s our home state. There are a lot more legacy children. There could be more faculty children.”
But early decision applicants tend to be better suited for NU because they know it is the school for them, Dixon said. They also are likely to have other connections to the university, such as having attended one of NU’s college preparatory programs for high school students or having a parent who attended NU, she said.
“They write stronger applications because they have the familial connection,” she said.
Controversy over the early decision process has sprung up in recent months. Yale University President Richard C. Levin said in a December interview with the New York Times that the process should end because it pressures students to make premature decisions and generates too many applications.
Dixon said the process has become uncontrollable at many east coast schools, where the early applicants are mostly East Coast students who want to attend a prestigious school near home. This is not a problem for NU because Midwestern students, who make up most of NU’s applicant pool, consider more options, such as Big Ten and West Coast schools.
Dixon said NU will probably keep an early decision admissions rate of about 50 percent if the quality of applicants remains constant.
“It’s not our choice, it’s the students choice,” she said. “(The rate) may drop a little bit if the number of applications goes up and the quality doesn’t.”
Jim Conloy, chairman of the post-high school counseling department at New Trier High School in Winnetka, said NU accepted the two students he helped apply early decision.
But one of the students he counseled might not have been accepted if she had applied regular decision, Conloy said.
“We can see that where students have applied early decision, there have been students that are clearly more qualified that apply regular decision and don’t get in,” he said.
Dixon said regular decision can appear more selective because of its lower acceptance rate of 37 percent, compared to a 50 percent acceptance rate of early applicants. But the early decision pool is also competitive because applicants are usually highly motivated, Dixon said.
High school senior Kimberly Jeffries of Alexandria, Va., who attended an NU summer journalism program in July, was accepted through early decision. Although an admissions representative told her applying early might increase her chances of being accepted, Jeffries said she had other reasons for choosing NU.
“The journalism school — Medill — is one of the best in the country and that’s something I’m really interested in studying,” she said. “I fell in love with the campus this summer.”
