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More and More Ivy league Colleges, plus Stanford, Will No Longer Report Admit Rates

In college admissions, applicants often perceive exclusivity, translated as less than 5% admit rates, as a higher quality education, and (sometimes more importantly) a guarantee of lifetime prosperity, The Golden Ticket, as one is forever branded with elitism. However, in coming years, applicants may be guessing more often than not about the selectivity of a university.  Several highly selective universities,…

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All Ivy League Colleges Extend Test Optional Admissions for Fall 2023…and for a few, beyond 2023

For at least one more application cycle, all Ivy League applicants will once again consider if they can demonstrate their aptitude with a standardized test score. Yale and Princeton admissions officers recently announced maintaining test optional admissions policies through Fall 2023, joining the rest of the Ivy League colleges, although with varying timeframes for the extensions.  Admissions officers at Brown,…

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Highly Selective Indeed

Throughout the Ivy League, possibly emboldened by test-optional admissions policies being one less barrier to entry, Fall 2021 applicants increased by double digits, adding subjectivity to the admission evaluation process and dropping admit rates year over year, some to record lows at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania.  Ivy League admit rates for the Classes of 2025: Harvard, 3.4% Columbia,…

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All Ivy League Colleges Are Test Optional for Fall 2022

Since every Ivy League college—Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Barnard*, Dartmouth, University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell—extended their test-optional policies to include Fall 2022 admissions, current high school Class of 2022 juniors will not be obligated to submit SAT or ACT scores with their application.  Given the sudden change to test-optional policies, applicants inevitably ask whether they should submit SAT/ACT scores…

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Changes to Early Admissions for Fall 2021

College admissions officers are changing Fall 2021 early admissions opportunities, both Early Action and Early Decision. Early Action is defined as applying typically in November to receive an admissions decision in mid-Winter, without having to commit to enrollment until May of the following spring. Early Decision means applying early to receive a mid-winter admissions decision and an acceptance is a…

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Princeton Suspends Early Action for Fall 2021

On June 18, 2020, Princeton University’s Dean of Admissions, Karen Richardson, temporarily suspended Princeton’s Single-Choice Early Action deadline for the Fall 2021 application cycle. All first year applicants will apply using a single deadline of January 1, 2021. Princeton is the first university in the U.S. to suspend the early admissions process for Fall 2021 admissions.  Princeton’s Dean Richardson explained…

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Top #25 Universities Go Test Optional

This past week, three more U.S. News & World Report top #25 universities Georgetown University, Stanford University and Princeton University suspended the requirement of SAT or ACT scores for Fall 2021 first year applicants. One Stanford student, amongst others, were frustrated by the policy changes, as for many years, they believed (and were taught) that test scores were essential components…

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The Ivy League Goes Test-Optional…Almost

Following both Brown’s and Yale’s test-optional announcements, yesterday evening, June 15, Harvard became the seventh Ivy League college to suspend the requirement of SAT and ACT scores for Fall 2021 first year applicants.  Why is Princeton, as the last remaining Ivy League, still requiring standardized test scores for Fall 2021 first year applicants? Since the Ivy League can be considered…

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Is COVID-19 Affecting Admissions Rates?

Below is a comparison of the admissions rates between Fall 2019 and 2020 at a sampling of the most selective universities, ranked from lowest difference to highest: COLLEGE NAME FALL 2019 ADMIT RATE FALL 2020 ADMIT RATE DIFFERENCE Brown University 7.1% 6.9% -0.2% Princeton University 5.8% 5.6% -0.2% Northwestern University 8.9% 9% +0.1% Duke University 8.8% 9.06% +0.26% Harvard University…

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Top 25 Nationally Ranked Universities Adopt Pass/No Pass-Style Grades for Spring 2020

To date, thirteen of the top twenty-five US News & World Report nationally ranked universities, all adopted Pass/No Pass-style grading systems for the spring term, due to the COVID-19 health crisis: Princeton #1, Harvard #2, Columbia #3, Yale #3, Massachusetts Institute of Technology #3, University of Pennsylvania #6, Stanford University #6, Johns Hopkins University #10, Dartmouth #12, Brown #14, Cornell…

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