Applying to Yale in 2013? Lucky You!
This past weekend, Yale University President Richard Levin announced a major expansion to both the physical facilities and student body of one of America's most exclusive universities. Over the next five years, Yale will add two new residential colleges, resulting in an enrollment expansion of about 15%. This decision has already been certified by the Yale Corporation, the highest law in the land of Yalies, and was largely prompted by a natural need for expansion in the face of record low admissions rates.
Many students don't understand that the single biggest obstacle they face when applying to an Ivy League school is the size of the school itself. With only one to two thousand spots open in every freshman class, it is an inevitability that most of the applicants will be rejected. As I noted before, the need to turn away over 90% of applicants is one of the reasons extremely selective schools won't drop their SAT/ACT requirements. Even though standardized test scores have shown to be of little use in determining academic success, universities need all the reasons they can get to filter, categorize, and eliminate groups of prospective students from their applicant pools.
With that in mind, Yale's decision to increase enrollment by such a margin is good news indeed for future Yale applicants. Yale enrollment generally falls just above 5,000 students and hasn't changed much over the last few decades. Enrolling up 600+ new students in 2013 means that the fight for spots will be a little less cutthroat, although such a difference might not be that noticeable to the average Yale applicant. A 15% increase doesn't change the fact that you still need a 99th Percentile ACT/SAT score, great grades, and a killer resume to be taken seriously.
And, honestly, that's the way that Yale likes it. Yale enjoys tremendous acclaim and prestige not only for its excellent faculty and strong programs, but also because the number of Yale alums is so small. I'm happy to see that President Levin's decade-long push for enrollment increases is coming to fruition, but I don't expect to see any further increases anytime soon. Already students, faculty, and administrators are deeply concerned about the changes that are taking place and won't eagerly pursue further changes once these additions are complete. Expansion is always tricky business, but it's even trickier when everyone stands to gain from the exclusivity built into the system.