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Applications to Selective Colleges Rise as Admission Rates Fall – The Choice Blog – NYTimes.com

View the latest admissions data on colleges, including the University of Chicago, Princeton, Yale, Pomona, Wesleyan, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa. With many of the nationĂ¢??s most selective colleges and universities scheduled to inform applicants of their decisions on Thursday, The Choice has been reaching out to those institutions in pursuit of some statistical context. Though the figures I have in hand so far are the equivalent of early returns on election night, one trend already appears to be emerging: applications to elite private colleges rose again this academic year, despite the economic constraints on many families, and admission rates often fell to record lows. Harvard University, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Cornell, Stanford, M.I.T. and Duke are each reporting sharp increases in applications this year in comparison to last year.