Tufts has reported strong statistics for the members of the Class of 2009 accepted under its Early Decision (ED) program.
The University plans to keep its ED program, though other competitive schools have made the switch to the single-choice Early Action (EA) policy.
An ED summary prepared by the admissions office for use by University President Lawrence Bacow at last weekend's trustee meeting reported strong numbers, both in terms of the amount of applications and in terms of academic indicators.
Out of the record-breaking 15,500 first-year applicants for the Class of 2009 - a 5.2 percent increase over last year's record number - 1,291 applied for the ED program, resulting in a 6.5 percent increase over last year's ED pool.
Tufts admitted 468 of these ED applicants - almost 37 percent of its target of 1,275 students for the Class of 2009. In comparison, 42 percent of last year's incoming class was accepted under the ED plan.
This year's ED accepted applicants come from 37 states and 14 countries. Fifty-one percent are men, 35 percent accepted to the School of Engineering are women, 61 percent will graduate from a public high school, and 18 percent are students of color. The ED applicants from the Class of 2009 also have strong academic numbers, setting records in standardized test scores and class rank. The average SAT score rose from 1350 to 1380; the verbal (680) and math (700) mean SAT scores are the highest ever for an ED acceptance group.
Of students who reported class rank, 74 percent rank in the top 10 percent of their class. These numbers have risen from 67 percent last year.
Lee Coffin, Dean of Admissions, said this increased academic quality "reflects Tufts' heightened national reputation and the growing depth and breadth of our applicant pool."
Coffin also said that the strength of this ED pool is attributed to improved recruiting efforts - visits by Tufts admission officers to hundreds of high schools in the U.S., Canada, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, as well as thousands of prospective students and parents who came to visit the campus over the last year.
While Tufts' ED application pool continues to grow, some schools have abandoned their ED programs in favor of the single-choice EA program. The EA program is employed by institutions such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford. Prospective students are allowed to apply to one school early, but unlike ED, it is non-binding.
Tufts' Office of Admissions, however, does not plan to use EA in its admissions process.
"In my mind, an early application reflects a student's first choice intention. A binding ED plan allows a student to make such a declaration to Tufts," Coffin said.
Jonathan Westfield, a high school senior from Spokane, Wash. who was admitted to Tufts under the ED plan, supported this sentiment. "I applied early because I definitely knew I wanted to go to Tufts," he said. "I like the setting, the people were cool when I visited, and of course, the academics are great."
Some critics, however, take issue with the binding quality of ED. David Hawkins, Director of Public Policy at the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Alexandria, Va., said that the ED program "helps colleges register as many 'full-paying' students as possible."
Coffin said such a view is cynical, and that such admission procedures are not practiced at Tufts.
"The percentage of the class who receive financial aid is usually higher during Early Decision, between 40 and 45 percent, than Regular Decision, around 35 to 40 percent. Tufts meets 100 percent of the demonstrated need of each student we admit," Coffin said.
