To make up 49 percent of class of 2009.
By: David Campbell
Less than a third of the 2,039 high school seniors who applied to Princeton University for early admission got the good news last month.
The university accepted 593 students from a pool of applicants who applied to the class of 2009, the university announced last week. Notification letters were mailed to the high school seniors Dec. 10.
"I am delighted with the intellectual curiosity of the admitted students," said Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye. "Each student’s academic accomplishments and personal achievements are outstanding examples of excellence."
The early-decision candidates are expected to comprise 49 percent of what will become the class of 2009. This is about the same percentage as the previous year, the university said.
All is not lost for those who did not receive the much sought-after letter of acceptance to Princeton. Deferred candidates will be reconsidered with the regular-decision applicants, who had to apply by Jan. 2. They are expected to be notified of admission in early April.
The number of early applicants increased by 12 percent this year following the introduction of new Web-based application forms. University spokesman Eric Quiñones said the aim of the additional application formats was to make applying easier and more accessible and "to widen the net" for potential applicants.
Fifty-five percent of the admitted students are men and 45 percent are women. Twenty-three percent are students of color, which is up from 18 percent last year.
International students comprise 9 percent of students picked for early admission. American students represent 43 states and the District of Columbia.
The quality of the admitted students is topnotch. Average SAT I scores of the admitted group were 730 verbal and 730 math. Of those ranked, 94 percent are in the top 10 percent of their high school class, according to the university.
Princeton offers prospective students who have made the Ivy League university their first choice the opportunity to apply through a binding early decision, which requires that students not apply for early decision elsewhere. Under the binding agreement, if they are admitted they agree to matriculate. The early-decision application deadline was Nov. 1.
A team of readers evaluated every file, and most decisions were made by a committee, Mr. Quiñones said.
In recent years there has been an increase in the admission of engineering students, but this year there were no notable shifts in other areas of the sciences and humanities, university officials said.
The Office of Admission offered prospective students for the class of 2009 new options for applying to the university: online and paper versions of a standardized application form used by colleges and universities across the nation, and the online Princeton form.
About 25 percent of the early-decision applicants used the online and paper versions of the standardized form, called the Common Application, the university said.

