Wesleyan’s Early-Decision Round I admissions applications were due last weekend. Remarkably, the Admissions Office has reported a forty percent increase in applications. While this year was initially speculated to show a dip in applications due to the nation’s financial crisis, Wesleyan’s rate is currently unprecedented.

According to the New York Times article, Wesleyan’s competition has also seen significant increases in early-decision applications Dartmouth, Middlebury at 10 %, Haverford at 14 %, Pomona at 20 %. Wesleyan’s rivals, Williams and Amherst, rates have remained stagnant.

Greg Pyke, Senior Associate Dean of Admissions at Wesleyan remarked on the outstanding increase:
“It’s hard to believe that one group of 17-year-olds has become more decisive than the group you saw the previous year. So maybe it’s that in a time of economic uncertainty, people want something settled.”

At Berkeley Carroll, a New York City private school, Brandon Clarke, Berkeley Carroll’s director of college counseling, reported that not a single family this year reconsidered their child’s college choice based on financial reasons.

“Maybe education is the last thing people are willing to give up,” he said.

To what do we attribute this increase in applications? Could it be due to all of the press Obama conjured for Wesleyan this past summer? Or the success of Wesleyan alumni in mainstream music (MGMT, Santogold)? Why are we out-competing our competition?

Read the full article