< spring break, admissions sent out its decisions, accepting 20.7% of the roughly 6,500 applicants for the class of 2021.
The acceptance rate for the class of 2021 was one of the lowest in the college’s history. “It is almost never below 21%,” said Dean of Admissions Paul Thiboutot.
In December, the college admitted 212 students, or approximately 40% of the class of 2021, early decision. Typically, the college admits 37% to 41% of a class early decision.
The college hopes to end up with 520 to 525 students in the class of 2021, according to Thiboutot. “We decided against making a smaller class to accommodate the larger class of 2020,” he said. “We don’t want to have huge fluctuations in our class sizes. Instead, we are treating the class of 2020 as a bump.”
In the fall, 573 students enrolled in the class of 2020, making it the largest class in college history. Around 520 students is the college’s target class size.
“We decided that in a given term, we would be able to accommodate the larger class of 2020 even if we didn’t reduce the goal class size for the class of 2021,” Thiboutot said.
For the first time, Carleton accepted the Coalition App in addition to the Common App. Unlike the Common App, which focuses on a student’s junior and senior years of high school, the Coalition App allows students to submit work from all four years of high school.
For fall 2017 applications, 63 schools used the Coalition App, and no schools had more than 100 students submit a Coalition App, according to Thiboutot.
“There is no difference on our end between the Coalition and Common Apps,” he said. “It’s more of a difference for those who apply. It doesn’t change our selection.”
As the Coalition App becomes better known among students and as more schools accept the App, Thiboutot expects that more students will use it. “It’s just getting off the ground,” he said.
Recently, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers released preliminary trends for students who applied to colleges and universities for the fall of 2017. The Association reported that 39% of the 250 institutions they surveyed had a reduction in international student applications. The largest decline was in applications from the Middle East.
A New York Times article attributes this decline to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, particularly his travel ban.
Thiboutot stressed that Carleton did not receive fewer international applications than it has in the past.
Last year, accepted students’ days was shortened to a single Friday overnight, while previously it had included a Friday and a Saturday overnight. The college will once again offer a single overnight.
“The irony is that we ended up with more students coming to the weekend, and our yield went up,” Thiboutot said. “It wasn’t as big of a commitment, so maybe more students felt like they could come.”
Looking forward, admissions will move from Johnson House to Scoville ninth week. As a result, they will not be accepting visitors from Monday, May 22 to Thursday, May 24.
Scoville, which was the college’s original library, has been under construction since June. When the building opens, admissions will hold information sessions in the old reading room, which has been restored to its original woodwork.
In addition, Student Financial Services will be moving from Henry House to the basement of Scoville.
“Our two offices work together, and the extra space in Scoville will allow us to be in the same building,” Thiboutot said.
A side entrance was added to Scoville so that students can enter student financial services directly and will not have to go through admissions to access the student financial service office. This entrance will also be the handicap accessible entrance for both offices.
The Career Center will soon move to Johnson House, vacating its current space in Sayles, according to the Strategic Master Plan.
