It was another Early Decision cycle at Dartmouth College and it was another sweep for Ivy Coach. In what we would argue is the toughest year in the history of highly selective college admissions with Early applications through the roof at the vast majority of elite universities and a significant portion of each incoming class already filled with admits to the Class of 2024 who opted to take gap years, every single one of Ivy Coach’s students who completed applications with us and applied Early Decision to Dartmouth’s Class of 2025 got in. In fact, it marked the 14th year in the last 15 in which Ivy Coach has completed a perfect sweep of acceptances in Dartmouth’s Early Decision round. As our readers may remember, our 13 year streak of perfection in Dartmouth’s ED round snapped in 2018 but we’re now perfect in back-to-back years. So we’re starting a new streak! Bo may know baseball. But we know Dartmouth. In fact, we like to call ourselves the Dartmouth whisperer. Perhaps it’s because Ivy Coach’s owner went to Dartmouth.

Early Decision Applications to Dartmouth’s Class of 2025 Surge 29%

For the Class of 2025, 566 students earned admission to Dartmouth College under its binding Early Decision program. These students were drawn from the largest Early Decision pool in the College on the Hill’s long history: 2,664 applicants. This marked a 29% increase from last year’s Early Decision pool, which consisted of 2,069 applicants. Dartmouth’s Class of 2025 Early Decision admit rate thus stands at 21.2% as compared to 26.4% for the Class of 2024, which is quite a significant drop. As interestingly, last year, Dartmouth offered Early Decision admission to 526 applicants. So 40 more applicants earned admission this cycle as compared to last cycle. And we already know that about 14.9% of seats at Dartmouth in the Class of 2025 are already filled by students admitted to the Class of 2024 who took gap years. And what does all this mean? Well, Dartmouth previously announced they won’t be expanding their incoming class size to accommodate the gap year students. Thus, by our deductive reasoning, it is logical to conclude that, boy, is it going to be tough to get into Dartmouth this Regular Decision cycle.

A Breakdown of the Early Decision Admits to Dartmouth’s Class of 2025

As to Dartmouth’s Early Decision admits to the Class of 2025, as Coalter Palmer reports for The Dartmouth in a piece entitled “Dartmouth admits 566 early decision applicants from largest-ever pool,” “Of the 566 admits, 36% are Black, Indigenous or people of color, 16% are first-generation and 14% live outside of the U.S. — all early decision records. Coffin added that a record 26% come from low-income families, and 18% of the early decision admits are projected to be eligible for Pell Grants. Admitted students represent 44 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Guam and 36 countries…Meanwhile, 15% of the incoming early decision cohort are children of Dartmouth alumni, and 18% are recruited athletes. In 2019, recruits made up 25% of admitted early decision students, and they comprised 24% in 2018. This decrease in athletic admissions follows the College’s decision this summer to cut five athletic teams in order to reduce recruitment by 10%.”

Dartmouth’s Lee Coffin Told the Truth and Should Be Commended

Congratulations to each and every Ivy Coach student who completed applications with us and applied Early Decision to Dartmouth — you all got in! And one last word on Dartmouth this year: we believe it’s one of the few schools that actually told the truth about their “test-optional” policy. Of all the deans of admissions at our nation’s elite universities, Dartmouth’s Lee Coffin seemed the most sincere when he said that students who didn’t submit test scores really would have an equal shot. Today, we believe he — unlike most admissions leaders — was telling the truth all along.