Wondering about the percentage of students admitted to Dartmouth’s Class of 2024 who committed to attending the school but opted for a gap year during the pandemic? Wonder no more. 172 students chose the gap year route this year, a figure that’s up from the 30-40 students who usually defer their admission by a year. In all, 14.9% of students in Dartmouth’s Class of 2024 took a gap year, a figure on par with — if not a bit less than — other elite American universities this cycle. And just who chose to take a gap year among Dartmouth’s first-year admits? Mostly students from western states and from outside the U.S.

Gap Years Are Up Five-Fold at Dartmouth College

As Andrew Sassker reports for The Dartmouth in a piece entitled “Gap year numbers increase five-fold for Class of 2024,” “Incoming students were able to defer enrollment to next fall if they submitted a request by July 20. However, College policy changed over the course of the summer: Dean of admissions and financial aid Lee Coffin wrote in an June 29 email that students who did not want to enroll in the fall should cancel their enrollment and reapply next year, before clarifying two days later that students would be allowed to postpone enrollment.”

The Class of 2025 Will Have It Tough

As loyal readers of our college admissions blog know, Dartmouth’s Coffin previously committed to not expanding the class size of the Dartmouth Class of 2025. So this means that the 172 students in the Dartmouth Class of 2024 who opted to defer their enrollment by a year will be eating up 172 seats from the Dartmouth Class of 2025. “But, Ivy Coach, does this mean it will be that much harder to get into Dartmouth this year,” you ask. You do the math. There will be that many fewer seats. Of course it will be harder. Remember when they used to say year after year in highly selective college admissions how it was the toughest year ever? And remember how we used to say that wasn’t true — largely because these schools weren’t getting so much more competitive as much as they were getting better at encouraging more students — even unqualified students — to apply? Well, this year, mark our words. It will be the toughest year ever.