What a year for Dartmouth College’s admissions office! Applications to Dartmouth’s Class of 2025 are up and they are up big. In fact, between Early Decision and Regular Decision, applications are up 32.5% as compared to last year. To put this spike in perspective, applications are up by similar margins at two of Dartmouth’s peer institutions within the Ivy League — by 34% at the University of Pennsylvania and by 42% at Harvard University. So the uptick in total applications at Dartmouth is in line with similar upticks in total applications at other highly selective universities.

Applications to Dartmouth Surge Nearly 33%

As Mike Hanrahan reports for The Dartmouth in a piece entitled “Applications for Class of 2025 spike 33% from last year,” “For high school seniors, the 2020-21 college application season has proven to be yet another challenge to navigate during the pandemic. This year, the College saw an all-time high of 28,338 combined early decision and regular decision applicants — a 32.5% increase in applications since the last admissions cycle…Due to the high volume of applications, Dartmouth and all other Ivy League schools have pushed their admission decision release date by roughly a week to April 6.”

A Banner Year for Dartmouth’s Admissions Office

To put the 28,338 total applications to Dartmouth’s Class of 2025 in context, the College on the Hill received 21,294 total applications to its Class of 2024. This same figure stood at 23,650 for the Class of 2023, 22,033 for the Class of 2022, 20,034 for the Class of 2021, and 20,675 for the Class of 2020. In fact, prior to this admissions cycle, Dartmouth had never before received 24,000 applications much less over 28,000 submissions. We’d call that a banner year indeed.