哥伦比亚的申请量比去年增加了49％；

哈佛大学录取了较小的同类人群，但上升了57％

今年，常春藤联盟大学的提前入学申请激增，因为焦虑的高中毕业生试图增加进入该国一些最挑剔的学校的机会。
约束性早期决策申请在布朗大学上升了22％，宾夕法尼亚大学上升了23％，达特茅斯学院上升了29％，哥伦比亚大学上升了49％。在耶鲁大学和哈佛大学，采用限制性早期行动方案的申请分别增长了约38％和57％。
巨大的跳跃以及随之而来的录取率下降说明了这个录取周期正在变得多么混乱。由于冠状病毒大流行，许多准学生无法参加标准化考试，参加课外活动，甚至无法在校舍上课。
包括所有8个Ivie在内的1,500多家大学和学院今年都不需要在应用程序包中提供SAT或ACT分数。一些大学辅导员说，对于那些成绩好但测试记录差的人来说，这可能使常春藤显得更遥不可及。大学官员说，虚拟外展活动也使他们能够与主要依靠校园参观时的广大受众建立联系。
尽管极端优势可能会逐渐消失，但在一些高度挑剔的学校中，早期入学率可能是正常年份常规决策率的两倍甚至三倍。在早期申请耶鲁大学的人中，大约有十分之一的人被录取，而去年这一比例为14％。在哈佛，早期录取率从14％降至7.4％。
常春藤联盟的早期申请数量激增可能并不代表更广泛的招生趋势。到12月2日，提交的通用申请比去年同期多6％。但是申请者的数量下降了2％，这意味着申请的人数减少了，但他们的目标是更长的学校。这使招生人员更难预测谁将实际报名，以及他们需要接受多少才能达到目标班级人数。
随着美国最令人垂涎的一些机构的申请池不断增加，招生院长还必须考虑因大流行而推迟2020年秋季入学的数十名甚至数百名学生。管理者表示，并非所有推迟参加课程的人实际上都会在以后声称自己的位置，并且一些学校可能会扩大他们的一年级课程，以弥补较小的二年级课程。
哈佛大学在本周期的10086名申请者中接纳了747名，而去年这一数字为6424名，录取了895名。从2020年秋季开始，共有349名学生入学推迟了入学时间。
该学校表示，现在确定延期将如何影响今年的招生还为时过早。
哈佛大学招生和经济援助主任威廉·菲茨西蒙斯说：“鉴于迄今为止有大量杰出的申请者，哈佛大学对早期招生采取了保守的态度。” 这将“确保在常规招生周期中对申请人进行适当的审查。”
普林斯顿大学今年暂停了提前入学的选择，称希望减轻对大流行后高年级申请者的压力。
从去年春季开始，康奈尔大学表示将不再发布详细的早期或常规周期申请或入学人数，尽管它仍会每年向联邦政府报告这些数字。
2018年，斯坦福大学是第一家明确保留其早期决策或常规决策数据的高度选择性的学校，当时表示它希望不再强调低接受率的感知价值。
Early-admission applications to Ivy League colleges skyrocketed this year, as anxious high-school seniors tried to boost their chances of getting into some of the most selective schools in the country.
Binding early decision applications rose by 22% at Brown University, 23% at the University of Pennsylvania, 29% at Dartmouth College and 49% at Columbia University. At Yale University and Harvard University, applications under the restrictive early-action option jumped by about 38% and 57%, respectively.
The massive jumps—and resultant declines in acceptance rates—illustrate just how chaotic this admissions cycle is shaping up to be. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, many prospective students were unable to take standardized tests, participate in extracurricular activities or even attend classes in their school buildings.
More than 1,500 colleges and universities, including all eight Ivies, aren’t requiring SAT or ACT scores in application packages this year. For those with strong grades but poor testing records, some college counselors say, that may have made an Ivy seem more within reach. College officials say virtual outreach events also allowed them to connect with a wider audience than they could when relying mainly on campus visits.
Early-round admission rates at some highly selective schools can be double or even triple the rates for regular decision in typical years, though that extreme advantage may be waning. Roughly one in 10 of those who applied early to Yale were admitted, compared with 14% last year. At Harvard, the early acceptance rate fell to 7.4% from 14%.
The Ivy League’s spike in early applications may not represent broader admissions trends. There were 6% more Common Applications submitted by Dec. 2 than at the same time last year. But the number of applicants slid by 2%, meaning fewer people applied, but they targeted longer lists of schools. That makes it harder for admissions officers to predict who will actually enroll, and how many they need to accept to hit their target class size.
The share of seniors who submitted federal financial aid applications is down sharply from last year as well, with concern growing that many for whom college was already a stretch will opt out of postsecondary education entirely.
As the application pool grows at some of the nation’s most coveted institutions, admissions deans must also account for the dozens or even hundreds of students who deferred their fall 2020 enrollments because of the pandemic. Administrators have said not all those who defer actually claim their spots later, and some schools may expand their first-year class to make up for a smaller sophomore class.
Harvard accepted 747 of its 10,086 applicants this cycle, compared with 895 admits from 6,424 applicants last year. It had 349 students from the fall 2020 entering class defer their enrollment.
The school said it is still too early to determine how the deferrals will affect this year’s admissions.
“Given the high number of remarkable applicants to date, Harvard has taken a conservative approach” to early admissions, said William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid for Harvard College. That will “ensure proper review is given to applicants in the regular admissions cycle.”
Princeton University suspended its early-admission option this year, saying it hoped to reduce pressure on applicants whose senior years were upended by the pandemic.
Beginning last spring, Cornell University said it would no longer release detailed early or regular cycle application or admission numbers, though it does still report the figures annually to the federal government.
In 2018, Stanford University was the first highly selective school to explicitly withhold its early-decision or regular-decision data, saying at the time that it wanted to de-emphasize the perceived value of low acceptance rates.
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