A Friendly Note From Duke University

Not to be cynical, but I thought I would just fill you all in a friendly postcard Duke sent in the mail today. The front of the card is a gorgeous picture of Duke in the spring, and it says "Admissions Update: Spring 2011."

On the back is a friendly four paragraph note from the Dean of Admissions about the number of applications they have recieved and what sounds like an early apology for the low number of acceptances.

Here is paragraph two, "We'll end up with over 29,500 applications this year - over 3,000 more than last year and almost 9,000 more than three years ago.Our entering class will include just over 1700 students, 640 of whom have been chosen already in our Early Decision process. That leaves roughly 28,000 applications for fewer than 1100 places in the class."

A quick note on that last sentence. Please remember that whenever you hear colleges reference the number of applications vs. places in the class, they are not telling you how many students they will accept. While there are only 1100 places in the class, Duke (and all colleges) have to accept many more students than they have room for. Even at a college as excellent as Duke, not every student they admit will select them, so colleges typically accept at least twice as many students as they have spaces for (some will admit three or four times the number of spaces they have in the class.) It would be much clearer if colleges would publish information that tells you: We have 47,000 applications, and we will accept 10,000 students (even though there are only 2200 places in the class).

Juniors: I am giving you this information to help you make sense of the mind boggling statistics that colleges will throw at you during information sessions. Also, it's an FYI if you are planning to apply to Duke next year.

Seniors: I am just passing along what's on my desk to your desk.