For the second straight year, Yale received a record number of early action applications.
The 6,020 early action applications for the class of 2023 amounts to a 5 percent increase in the number of applications from last year, the previous record. Compared to the class of 2021 — the first class after the 2017 expansion of Yale College — the class of 2023 has almost 1,000 more early applications. The number jumped from 5,086 two years ago to just above 6,000 this year.
Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan told the News that Yale received applications from “50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and more than 100 foreign countries.” During this phase of the application cycle last year, Yale only received applications from 49 states and 98 foreign countries.
Mark Dunn, the director of outreach and communications at the Admissions Office, said that this year, Yale saw increased application numbers from nearly every subgroup tracked by the office.
Current admissions outreach efforts focus on making information about applying, attending and affording Yale as clear and accessible as possible, Dunn said. The Admissions Office does this through publishing student blogs, conducting email campaigns and hosting on-campus visits.
“We always put the authentic experience of real Yale students front and center,” Dunn told the News.
Dunn also emphasized that the success of the Admissions Office’s strategy ought to be measured not just in terms of the number of applications but also in the quality and diversity of the applicant pool.
“By those metrics, I think our strategy has been successful in helping students from all backgrounds imagine themselves thriving at Yale,” Dunn said.
Dunn noted that the number of applications from students traditionally underrepresented at Yale — such as those who identify as a member of a minority racial or ethnic group, or attend high schools in the South or West of the United States — outpaced the 5 percent growth from last year.
Noting their significance, Dunn extolled the office’s annual Multicultural Open House and the rollout of the new MyInTuition Quick College Cost Estimator. The Multicultural Open House is an event that invites prospective students and their families to campus to learn about Yale’s academic and cultural offerings, and MyInTuition is a tool that allows Yale applicants to receive a reliable estimate of what their Yale education would cost in approximately three minutes.
Last year, Yale admitted 14.7 percent of its early action applicants.
Skakel McCooey | skakel.mccooey@yale.edu