The Office of Admission received 3,086 early decision applications for the class of 2018, a record high and a 2 percent increase in applicants from last year’s early pool, said Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73.
The University received 3,010 early applicants last year.
Minority students make up about one third of the applicant pool, a proportion consistent with last year’s figures, Miller said. Applications to the Program in Liberal Medical Education increased by about 6 percent, with 409 applicants this year as opposed to 386 the previous year.
International early decision applicants comprise nearly 13 percent of the early decision pool, an increase of 25 applications over last year, with 409 international students applying early to the class of 2018, Miller said.
Applications to the Brown-Rhode Island School of Design Dual-Degree program rose 54 percent this year, at 77 applicants this cycle as compared to 50 last cycle, Miller said. But he said this increase is not significant, because the class of 2016 early cycle had 70 applicants to the program, so the “50 was more of an anomaly.”
The Office of Admission extended its Nov. 1 early decision deadline for applicants on a case-by-case basis due to glitches in the recently revamped Common Application website.
“There was a fair amount of difficulty with the Common Application at high schools and on our end,” Miller said. “Ultimately, people were able to apply, and that’s good news.”
Applicants were most likely to indicate interest in life sciences, with about 27 percent identifying a life science as a potential concentration, Miller wrote in an email to The Herald. The social sciences followed closely behind, as nearly 26 percent of early applicants chose that category as an intended area of concentration.
The physical sciences, humanities and undecided rounded out the choices for intended field of study, claiming 22, 18 and 7 percent of early applicants, respectively.
Yale and Penn each reported a record high number of early applicants, with 4,768 and 5,133, respectively, though Yale offers a nonbinding single-choice early action program instead of early decision.
Dartmouth also saw an increase in early applicants from this year to last, with 1,678 applicants or a 6.7 increase. Princeton, which also offers single-choice early action, reported 3,831 applicants, but admission officers at the school indicated to the Daily Princetonian that this number could change due to late applications.
Cornell, Columbia and Harvard have yet to release their early application figures.
Brown’s Admission Office hopes to notify early decision applicants of their admission status by mid-December, though the exact date is not yet confirmed, Miller said.
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