Applications to Ivy League, other schools setting records

It’s admissions season — and this one is like no other.

College application numbers for a spot in the Class of 2021 defied expectations, setting records at many universities — including more than 102,000 applications at UCLA.

High school students have, of course, been on edge.

Schools have started rolling out acceptances — and rejections — for the class of 2021. Competition this year was fierce, as nearly every Ivy League and “Baby Ivy” school reported skyrocketing numbers of applications.

Cornell University reported both record applications and acceptance rates. The university got more than 47,000 apps and said “congratulations” to a new low of 12.5%.

The University of Pennsylvania also smashed records this season. There were more than 40,000 applications, including both early and regular apps, and 9.15% were admitted. The acceptance rate is the lowest in UPenn’s history.

Breaking even more records: Brown University received its highest number of applications, with 32,724. The school accepted a record low of 8.3%.

Over at Yale University, the school accepted the largest freshman class in its history, about 2,272. ( Yale usually admits about 2,000.)

It got a record 32,900 overall applicants — both early and regular decision applications — this time around and welcomed 6.9% overall.

There was also a record broken at Harvard University, which received over 39,000 apps this season. It accepted 5.2% of that pile, welcoming 2,056 to the Ivy League school.

Princeton University had its most selective admissions season, accepting 6.1% of over 31,000 applications. That makes 1,890 regular application acceptances for its Class of 2021.

At Columbia University, early applicants also set a record — these applications were up a whopping 16%. According to

Business Insider, Columbia accepted 2,185 applicants from a pool size of 37,389, yielding an admissions rate of 5.8%.

Other elite schools are seeing similar trends.

Stanford University admissions was highly selective, with a record 44,073 applications this year. It ended up accepting 4.65% of that application pool, the lowest rate in its history, campus newspaper Stanford Daily reported.

Only 7.3% of regular- decision applicants to Duke University were accepted this year, a record low rate for the school. It accepted 2,255 high school students out of nearly 31,000 applicants.

The total pile of 34,000 regular and early applications was a record for Duke. There was a higher acceptance rate of 24.5% in the early- decision stack, making it Duke’s second- most- selective early season.

One outlier: The Ivy’s Dartmouth College reported a lower number of applications, with 20,000 this year. The school still admitted a low 10.4% of the application pool for the lowest acceptance rate since 2013, according to campus newspaper The Dartmouth.

ISTOCK/ GETTY IMAGES Yale accepted its largest freshman class.