Early Action applications to the Yale Class of 2027 rose this year — to 7,777 students. It marks the second largest Early Action applicant pool in Yale’s history, trailing only the Early Action pool for the Yale Class of 2025 when 7,939 students applied to the Ivy League institution by the November deadline. This year’s Early Action pool is approximately 6% larger than last year’s pool of 7,313 candidates, which now ranks as the third largest Early Action pool in Yale’s history.

As Anika Seth reports for The Yale Daily News in a piece entitled “Yale receives 7,777 early action applications,” “While that growth is generally consistent across demographics categories, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions noted increases larger than 6 percent in students who identify as a member of an underrepresented racial or ethnic group, students who would be the first in their families to attend college and  international applicants. ‘The admissions office is much more interested in the strength and diversity of the pool of students who apply to Yale each year than simply the number of students who apply,’ wrote Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid, echoing sentiments from last year’s early action cycle. ‘I am pleased that our early action pool has been relatively consistent in size for three years and that students from underrepresented backgrounds are now more likely to apply to Yale early than in the past.'”

Kudos to Yale’s admissions team for boosting its Early Action pool by 6% from last year — even if the application total does not set a new benchmark for the Ivy League institution. Last year’s Early Action pool at Yale was 8% smaller than for the Class of 2025 so you’ve got to imagine Jeremiah Quinlan and his admissions team at Yale jumped for joy when they counted this year’s tally.