The Office of Admissions received 589 applications for the first round of Early Decision, the largest number in the College history.
Despite last Tuesday's deadline, this number is not a final count for the total ED I applications that the office will receive.
"Some arrive in the mail and some applications come in incomplete, so this is just a preliminary number," explained Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Scott Meiklejohn. "It will probably be another week to ten days before we have our final number."
Last year, the college reviewed 568 ED I applications, making this year's estimate of 589 a 3.7 percent increase.
"And we're expecting that number will creep up pretty soon once we receive the rest of the applications," said Meiklejohn. "Last year was a record, so the good news is that this year's number will mark a new record."
The office is still in its earliest stages of the reviewing process, so the Admissions officers have not yet determined any clear statistics for ED I applicants.
"We haven't had a chance to look at geography or any demographic details. That's normal for this time of year," said Meiklejohn.
In addition to the accepted ED I applicants, the office will choose the rest of Class of 2016 from Regular Decision and Early Decision II applications, both of which are due on January 1.
"We don't go into Early Decision [application reviewing] with a number in mind [of how many we intend to accept]. The number of early acceptances we make will reflect how excited we are about the applications. We've only read about 10 percent so far, but that will be a big activity in the next few weeks," Meiklejohn said.
The Office will mail out decision letters for ED I in early December.
"Last year we mailed letters around the ninth or 10th, so we'll try to stick to that date," said Meiklejohn.
The New York Times' College Admissions blog, 'The Choice,' has received Early Application data from 28 colleges, and a chart on the website shows increases in the number of applications from last year for all but five of these colleges. The blog states that, "such [early admissions] programs are continuing to grow in popularity this fall, despite a sluggish economy that would otherwise seem to give families reason to hedge their bets. But every year serves as a reminder that the quest to get into the nation's most competitive private colleges is often immune to the economic pressures on many families."
Bowdoin has not yet shared its ED I application information with The Choice.