The Bowdoin Orient

The Office of Admissions admitted 53 students through Early Decision (ED) II, putting the total of admitted students for the Class of 2016 through ED at 224, six fewer than to last year.

Admissions will now begin to evaluate the regular decision pool, which consists of 5,818 applications. In total, admissions received 6,705 applications to the College for the Class of 2016, a new record and a 2.4 percent increase from last year.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Scott Meiklejohn reported that his office received a total of 887 ED applicants and that, by admitting 224 of them, the overall ED admission rate for the Class of 2016 stands at 25.2 percent, considerably less than the approximately 30 percent admit rate in years past.

"Numbers are similar to last year's," Meiklejohn said. "Strength of applicants as well."

Meiklejohn once again emphasized the increase in the number of different high school nationwide represented in the applicant pool. This year, students from 2,995 high schools applied to Bowdoin, a 4 percent increase from last year. According to Meiklejohn, this increase reflects the rising geographical diversity of the applicant pool and helps admissions determine the national footprint of the College.

Admissions is currently at work considering the 5,818 regular decision applications it received, aiming to fill no more 260 spots in the class. In spite of receiving a record number of applications, the target for next year's incoming class size remains around 485, keeping with previous years.

The regular decision admission rate, which was around 16 percent last year, is expected to drop in response to the record number of applications.

"The admission rate in early decision dropped," Meiklejohn said. "That reflects what we expect to happen in regular decision as well, where we're seeing more applications for a class size that remains the same."

Meiklejohn said that the target date for mailing letters to regular decision applicants is March 23. Accepted students will have until May 1 to notify the College of their decisions.