Amherst College’s drop in applicants of approximately 0.5 percent this year is much smaller in comparison to that of other top liberal arts colleges: Swarthmore College and Middlebury College saw decreases of 10 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Similarly in renowned liberal arts colleges Pomona College, Bowdoin College and Carleton College all had a fall in their number of applicants. Most notably, though, Williams College saw a 20 percent decline in its applicants. Like Amherst, Williams had a 17 percent jump in applicants last year — a record high of 7,552. This year, the college received only 6,024 applications for the Class of 2013.
Williams added another essay to its application supplement this year, which Parker cites as a possible contribution to the drop in applicants. There are now two essays in its supplement; however, this is the same as Amherst’s. “If both [Williams and Amherst had] required one essay, and this year [Williams] required another, I’d expect it to have that effect,” Parker commented. “However, we are both requiring the same thing.”
Due to budget cuts this year, the Williams admissions office has travelled significantly less than in previous years. According to Parker, this decreased advertising of the college potentially played a large role in the decreasing number of applicants.
The economic crisis may have played a role, according to Parker, but this leaves no explanation as to why other comparably expensive private colleges and universities have continued to see increasing number of applicants. “I’m really perplexed,” Parker said. Overall, it is currently impossible to determine the causes for certain. Parker awaits the results of their admitted students’ questionnaire, hoping it will reveal helpful information and feedback.
Despite the rarity of having a decline of this magnitude, Parker is not very concerned. “Our applicant pools are so deep that we could currently accept four classes and still have a magnificent college,” he explained. Parker likened the applicant decrease to the College’s economic troubles: “Yeah, we’ve had [setbacks], but we need to remember that we are still very lucky.”
If this pattern were to continue for the next few years, Parker said he might be worried. However, he said, “so much of this is [unpredictable], we just don’t know what is going to happen, how bad the economy is going to become and when parents will decide that Amherst is just too expensive.” The Admissions Office is always concerned about price sensitivity, and carefully compiles and studies the results of the College’s admitted student questionnaire. “We pay a lot of attention [to these issues],” said Parker, “Despite being perplexed, we will continued to study this very carefully.”
In contrast, some colleges’ applicant pools have continued to increase. Wellesley and Smith Colleges have both seen increases in applications this year. Both women’s colleges have strongly emphasized their commitment to meeting families’ financial needs, hoping that this would relieve any economic anxiety. Wellesley received 4,200 applicants, a two percent increase from last year, while Smith received 4,000, a 10 percent increase this year.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University, Stanford University and every Ivy League university all had an increased number of applicants this year. Specifically, Harvard had a 5.6 percent increase to 29,000 applicants, Yale had a 14 percent increase to 26,003 applicants and Princeton had a two percent increase to 21,869 applicants.