Early acceptants stronger for 2008

The pool of early decision applicants for the Class of 2008 was slightly larger -- and the students were academically stonger -- than those applicants from last year, according to John Latting, director of undergraduate admissions.

"Over the past couple of years, we've enrolled about one-third of the freshman class through the early decision process," said Latting, "which is a balance we're comfortable with. We think a third is about right."

The early decision group in 2000 was the largest seen in recent years with 554 applicants. "The big jump was between 2002 and 2003," said Latting, from 516 to 613 early decision applications. This year, 2004, exhibited a small increase over last year.

"One crude measure of quality is to look at SAT scores of applicants," the director said, while cautioning that this was one of many components of an application that the admissions office considers. "This pool, academically speaking, was the strongest, in the simple quick way we measure." Roughly 55 percent of the early decision applicants were admitted this year, compared with 57 percent last year.

Latting added that "too much can be made from these numbers," using the example of trying to predict the winner of a 10,000 meter race within the first few meters.

"What's much more important is where we are in the summer [after all the regular decision applicants are done]," he said. "The story is only important at the finish line."

There has been a general increase in applications, both regular and early decision. "We continue to be the most popular with [the three nearby states] Maryland, New York, and New Jersey," he said. "Those three jockey for [top] position year in and year out." The growth in applications can also be seen in other regions of the United States. "Actually, we've seen a lot of growth in the west, and the [southwestern] "sun belt,'" Latting said. "California has been a growing place, not only for early decision, but applications [as a whole]."

Schools that compete with Hopkins have early decision applicants make up 25 to 50% of their freshman classes. "When I think of competitors, I think of the Ivies, Duke, and Stanford and Chicago and Washington University and Carnegie Mellon," said Latting. "A third is not the lowest percentage [of early decision acceptances in the freshman class], but it's in the bottom half. In other words, early decision at Hopkins is a less significant component of the application process [compared to many of its competitor schools]."

The similar application process, known as early action, differs from early decision because it is non-binding. With early decision, the expectation of accepted students is enrollment. Latting explained that, with early action, "there is no understanding, it's just an early notification of decision."

"It moves up the timeline but doesn't change the rules," he said. Latting commented on the trend at a growing number of schools that, "though [early action is technically] not binding, there is an [increasing] expectation that the student will apply to only one school early action," he said.

"Most competitors use early decision," said Latting, "but a few important ones [such as Harvard and MIT] are early action."

"We view this as a kind of work in progress, and I'm very excited about where we are at this time of year," he stated. "But we're not sitting around here congratulating ourselves. We're now focusing on the regular decision applicants. We're looking forward to putting together a strong class."