Bowdoin's admissions rate increased to 18.6 percent this year from 18.4 percent at this time last year. After accepting students off the wait list, last year's admit rate settled at 18.5 percent.
Bowdoin saw 5,940 applications this year, compared to 6,033 last year, for a 1.5 percent decrease. The College accepted 1,104 students this year, compared to 1,110 at this time last year.
"I think we were all bracing ourselves given what's happening in the wider world for a possible decrease in admissions, and nobody was excited about that," said Interim Dean of Admissions Scott Meiklejohn. "We were happy that our early decision applications were where they were. We're thrilled to be basically flat for total applications for the year."
Bowdoin's peer schools have generally seen even larger application decreases. Williams' is the most dramatic, with a 20 percent drop. Middlebury dropped 12 percent. Bates and Colby each saw a 7 percent drop, and Amherst dropped 1 percent.
"In the context of mostly applications being down at a ton of our peer schools, we were feeling relatively OK that we had essentially the same number," said Meiklejohn.
Colby accepted 33.7 percent of applicants this year. Last year at the mailing date, it had accepted 30.5 percent. Bates accepted 25.1 percent this year, lower than the 28.9 percent last year. Middlebury accepted 22.2 percent, higher than the 18.3 percent at this point last year. Amherst accepted 15.8 percent, also higher than the 14.2 percent at last year's mailing date. Williams was unavailable for comment about the admit rate for its Class of 2013.
Of the 693 early decision applicants, 209 were accepted, for a 30.2 percent admit rate. Last year, 207 of the 690 early decision applicants were accepted, for a 30.0 percent admit rate.
The target class size for May 1 is 485. The College then plans to add 10 more students who do not require financial aid and who may be either transfers or first years.
As was the case last year, a record number of students of color, 1,095, applied for admission and a record number of students of color were accepted, 413, for a 37.7 percent admit rate.
"That's a priority of the College," Meiklejohn said. "That's one of our most important objectives every year."
Women slightly outnumbered men in the accepted pool, 560 to 544, but women also outnumbered men in applications, 3,332 to 2,608. The admit rate for women was 16.8 percent, while the rate for men was 20.1 percent.
Bowdoin has offered 1,150 applicants a spot on the wait list, and Meiklejohn expects "several hundred" to accept spots. In recent years, Bowdoin has accepted 10 to 60 students off the wait list.