Rising seniors and parents—here's a great video from Forbes Magazine featuring Christophe Guttentag, Duke's Undergraduate Dean of Admissions.  It's entitled, "Who Gets Into Top Colleges and What Makes The Difference" and you'll find it chock full of interesting insights from the inside.

Click here to watch the video.

Colby College has admitted 188 Early Decision I applicants to the Class of 2019.  

A total of 373 ED1 applications were received this year, up 22% from the previous year.  The ED1 admission rate was 50%, down from last year's ED1 rate of 54%.   

Click here for the news release.

Early admission results continue to roll in.  Here's a summary of what's been reported as of 5:00pm PST December 20:

Middlebury College announced today that it admitted 280 early decision applicants to the Class of 2019.  

A total of 667 early action applications were received this year, down slightly (3%) from last year.  The early decision admission rate remained steady at 42%.

Middlebury expects admitted early decision applicants to comprise 40% of the targeted class size of 690.  

Click here for the news release.

The U.S. Department of Education outlined its framework for rating colleges in a report issued earlier today, as reported by the New York Times.  It plans to group schools into one of three categories: high-performing, low-performing and those in-between.

The article is interesting for two reasons: first, it provides a preview for how the government plans to assess college performance, and second, it's an instructive example of guarding against "false precision."

Click here for the Department of Education College Ratings Framework release.

Click here for the New York Times article.

The University of Notre Dame announced today that it admitted 1,400 early action applicants to the Class of 2019.  

A total of 4,700 early action applications were received this year, resulting in an early admission rate of 30%.  Total early action applications were up 4% over the previous year, despite the university changing its early action process to restrictive early action.   

Click here for the news release.

Northwestern University admitted 1,011 early decision applicants to the Class of 2019.  

A total of 2,793 early decision applications were received this year, down slightly from last year's record 2,863, resulting in an early admission rate of 36%. 

This year's early admittees are expected to comprise 49% of this year's targeted class.

Click here for the news release.

Georgetown University admitted 907 restrictive early action applicants to the Class of 2019.  

A total of 6,840 early action applications were received this year, resulting in an early admission rate of 13%. 

Click here for the news release.

Yale University announced today it admitted 753 single choice early action applicants to the Class of 2019.  

A total of 4,693 early applications were received this year, resulting in an early admission rate of 16%. This is essentially unchanged from last year.

Click here for the news release.

The University of Pennsylvania admitted 1,316 early decision applicants to the Class of 2019.  

With early decision applications up 6% from the previous year to 5,489, this year's admission rate fell slightly from 25.3% to 24%.

This year's early admittees are expected to comprise 54% of this year's targeted class of 2,420.

Click here for the news release.

Princeton University admitted 797 single choice early action applicants to the Class of 2019.  

With early applications essentially unchanged from the previous year, this year's admission rate increased slightly from 18.5% to 20%.

Click here for the news release.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology admitted 625 early action applicants to the Class of 2019.  

A total of 6,519 applications were submitted this year, resulting in an early admission rate of 9.6%.  This is up slightly from last years 9.0% admission rate.

Click here for the news release.

Williams College admitted 244 applicants to the Class of 2019 under early decision.  

With the total number of early decision applicants at 593, the early admission rate remained unchanged from last year at 41%.

This year's early admittees represent 44% of the targeted class size of 550.

Click here for the news release.

Johns Hopkins admitted 539 applicants to the Class of 2019 under early decision.  

The total number of early decision applicants grew 17% to 1,865, resulting in an early admission rate of 29%.

This year's early admittees represent 32% of the targeted class at the Whiting School of Engineering and 68% of the targeted class at Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

Click here for the news release.

Duke admitted 815 applicants to the Class of 2019 under early decision.  

The total number of early decision remained relatively unchanged at 3,180 this year, resulting in an early admission rate of 26%.

Of those admitted, 652 will be attending the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, while the remaining 163 will matriculate at the Pratt School of Engineering. 

Click here for the news release.