Number of preliminary applications up by 60%
The impact of last year's $25 application fee on the number of Rice applicants has apparently been reversed according to numbers released by the Admission Office on early-decision and interim-decision applicants for the Class of 2000.
Interim-decision applicants remained at a constant level with 2,052 as opposed to 2,058 in 1994, but early-decision applicants increased a full 60 percent this year as 358 high school seniors applied by the first deadline, a significant increase over the 215 in 1995.
"[The fee's] impact has come and gone," said Barry McFarland, senior associate director of admission. "[The fee] is still cheaper than virtually everybody else."
Director of Admission Julie Browning agreed that the impact of the fee has passed, but she attributes the large jump in early-decision applications to other factors as well.
"Basically, the public is finding it more and more difficult to wait until spring to make up their mind about colleges," Browning said.
"Our most significant competition, Stanford, for the first time instituted an early-decision this year. Both Princeton and Yale [implemented] a binding early-decision program."
While Browning cites that parents and students need to have an earlier decision, as proven by other prominent universities' move toward a more Rice-based admission system, she also places emphasis on Rice publicity for the increase.
The national media attention during the Baker Institute Inaugural Annual Conference, the national recognition received by other Rice departments like the music school and the publicity work by her staff were mentioned as significant contributions.
"Our admission staff is doing a very good job of selling Rice," Browning said. The increased number of early-decision applications produced an increase in the number of early-decision students accepted, but the percent accepted remained constant in comparison to past years. One hundred eighteen students were accepted as opposed to 75 last year, but the percent accepted in both years was approximately 33 percent.
The large increase in accepted early-decision applicants was balanced by a lower number of offers to interim-decision applicants, 659 as opposed to 678 in 1995. Admission staff members have seen two early trends in the applications this year.
One trend involves the Scholastic Aptitude Test. The percentage of high scorers on the SAT increased significantly due to the recentering of the mean. McFarland reports that in 1995 one percent of the early-decision applicants had a verbal SAT score of 750-800. This year, 32 percent scored within this range.
Another trend that Browning noted dealt with the female applicants.
"We're seeing more females apply in non-traditional areas like science and engineering," Browning said.
Browning believes that this freshman class is better than ever but that the quality can't be judged on the numbers due to the SAT recentering.
"It's difficult for Rice to get much better than that," Browning said. "In the long run, our pool is getting stronger, not just because of the test scores and the grades, but for their variety."
This item appeared in the News section of the February 16, 1996 issue.
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