High school students hoping to enroll at Bowdoin next fall have begun to send their applications, essays, recommendation letters and arts supplements to the Office of Admissions. The College received 594 applications for Early Decision I (ED I). The deadline was last Friday, November 15.
The number of ED applications may fluctuate in the coming days, according to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Scott Meiklejohn. Some students will opt to switch to regular decision, and some students who have already applied regular will call to move their application into the ED pool.
The number of applications is fairly consistant with previous years. It marks a slight decrease from the record-breaking 602 ED applications for the Class of 2017.
According to a Nov. 2012 Orient article, the Class of 2016 also had 594 ED I applications.
Meiklejohn attributed this gradual rise in applications to the fact that “more and more people around the country and the world are getting a better understanding of how great Bowdoin is.”
The number of schools represented in the applicant pool decreased 2.4 percent since last year, from 459 for the Class of 2017 to 448. However, the number of countries represented increased, from 56 last year to 67 this year, marking a 20 percent increase. The group of students applying ED I is also more diverse compared to past years. According to Meiklejohn, 111 multicultural students applied ED I. Last year, only 84 students of color applied ED I.
Although the applicant pool is diversifying and has been steadily expanding over the past few years, the number of students admitted through ED I has been roughly consistent.
One hundred and eighty-nine students were admitted ED I for the Class of 2017 and 172 for the Class of 2016.
“ED at Bowdoin is for someone who has completely convinced themselves that Bowdoin is their number one choice,” said Meiklejohn. “ED isn’t a better strategy. There are places where ED is an advantage but it’s not an advantage to apply ED here, it’s just an option.”
ED I applicants will find out whether or not they were admitted in early December. The ED II deadline is the same as the regular decision deadline, January 1.