ED I fills 45% of Class of 2014

Though a few scattered application materials continue to trickle in since the Nov. 15 deadline, this year’s pool of Early Decision I (ED I) applications has largely arrived. The Office of Admissions has already evaluated many of the applications, and will announce their decisions electronically on Dec. 12 following a Dec. 11 mailing.

About 45 percent of the Class of 2013 was admitted from the ED I and II applicant pools, as is typical. However, according to Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett, that percentage could be even higher this year.

“Based on the evaluations that we have done so far, this pool appears to be qualitatively even stronger than last year’s record-setting ED group,” said Clagett.

Approximately 665 prospective students submitted applications for the ED I deadline this year, only seven fewer than last year. This number, according to Clagett, is significantly higher than “virtually all” of the number of ED applications for the College’s peer institutions.

“That continues to speak well for our popularity as being the first-choice college for so many of our applicants,” he said.

Geographically, last year’s pool and this year’s pool are similar as well; as was the case last year, about a third of applicants hail from New England and about a quarter from the Middle Atlantic states, with smaller fractions from the South, the Southwest, and the West. A notable difference in this year’s pool, however, was that the number of applications from the South this year doubled.

“As always, what determines the number that we admit in ED is how certain we are that any student would also be admitted from the Regular Decision group,” said Clagett.  “If we are certain that the student would be admitted in the spring, then we admit in ED.”

Though Clagett could not be sure this early in the process whether the economic climate has had an impact on ED applicants’ decisions, he said he “would not be surprised if more students for whom financial aid will be an important consideration have decided not to apply ED to a college.

“If they are admitted, they cannot compare their financial packages with those of other colleges,” he said.

The addition of Senior Fellows — current seniors who assist the admissions office in giving information sessions, processing applications, conducting interviews and other admissions-related activities — to the process has been a fresh change this year.

“The Senior Fellows have been very helpful to us in the ED process in helping us file the application materials in the proper order in the folder and doing some preliminary analysis of academic credentials,” Clagett said.

“We’ve been responsible for helping the counselors in many of their projects, even if it’s something as simple as answering questions for prospective students or following up with them,” said Hannah Burnett ’10, one of the fellows. “We also help prepare some of the applications to be read, so that they’re as complete and ordered as possible for the counselors.

Burnett noted that the period between the ED I applications deadline and the decisions announcements is extremely short.

“This is the crunch time,” she said. “I pretty much live at Emma Willard.”

“ED is always very fast-moving,” said Katie Panhorst ’10. “It keeps you busy! It’s been fun because it changes up the atmosphere in the office.”

Though many prospective students who applied ED I may feel great apprehension as the deadline approaches, Clagett expressed confidence that the admissions decisions for this round of applications will be both painstaking and fair.

“Applicants can be assured that we have a very thorough, labor-intensive evaluation process that helps us make the best, most well-informed decisions possible,” Clagett said. He urged ED I applicants who are eventually deferred to “not give up hope.”

“As many students here at Middlebury can attest, every year there are some students who are deferred in ED but who are eventually admitted to Middlebury,” Clagett said.

Deadlines for both ED II and Regular Decision are Dec. 15 for the Middlebury Supplement to the Common Application and Jan. 1 for the remainder of the application.