Cornell announced today that it admitted 6,014 applicants, or 14 percent of the applicant pool for the Class of 2018.  A total of 43,041 applications were received this year, up 7.6 percent from the previous year.  Of the 6,014 accepted, 1,325 were admitted in December through early decision.

Click here for the news release.

Today Harvard announced that it accepted 2,023, or 5.9 percent of 34,295 students who applied for admission to the Class of 2018.  This number includes 992 students admitted through its early action program.

The admit rate for applicants considered under regular decision was 3.1%, compared to an admit rate of 21% for students who applied early action.

Click here for the news release.

Northwestern announced today that it admitted a record-low 12.9 percent of applicants for the Class of 2018.  3,440 acceptance letters were sent Thursday to regular decision applicants, in addition to 930 acceptances to students who applied early decision.  The overall acceptance rate dropped one percentage point from last year.

Click here for the article

University of Pennsylvania announced today that 9.9 percent of its applicant pool of 35,868 were admitted to the Class of 2018. 

Click here for the article

Admissions decisions were made available to applicants for the Class of 2018 today.  1,419 were admitted from a total of 18,357 applicants for an overall admission rate of 7.7 percent.

Click here for the MIT news release

University of California admission decisions have started rolling out in earnest.  Here are the official dates for both freshmen and transfers:

Today the College Board announced a series of actions designed to expand access and level the playing field for all aspiring college applicants.  These actions include:

• A major redesign of the SAT format planned for Spring 2016
• A partnership with Khan Academy to provide free test prep materials in support of the new test format
• College application fee waivers for income-qualifying applicants

SAT changes include:

• Three sections: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, Math, and Essay
• A return to the 1600 scale, with a separate score for the essay section
• Elimination of point deductions for wrong answers

Click here for the College Board press release or here for Wall Street Journal coverage of the announcement. 

Princeton Review has released its list of the nation's best value colleges for 2014. 

150 public and private institutions are covered, with UNC Chapel Hill as the top public school and Williams College as the top private school.

Click here for the press release.

Early admission results are now rolling in.  Here's the latest as of 5:00pm December 21:

The number of applicants for early admission are now starting to be reported by major colleges and universities. Here's the list as of December 10th:

Thought you'd find this September 2013 entry from the Harvard Crimson Admissions Blog of some use.  In it they interview seven recent applicants and their reasons for taking advantage of early action and decision programs.  Note: only one of the students speaks of Harvard and not all of them end up attending the school they applied to early.

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From time to time we come across articles that help to take some of the mystery out of the college admissions process.  

Here's an interesting article written by Claire Abbadi of The Middlebury Campus about the Middlebury College admissions process (link), as well as some clarifying comments from Middlebury's Alumni Admissions Program (link). 

Several colleges and universities have extended their deadlines for early action and early decision due to continuing challenges with the new Common App website.  Most have shifted their deadlines out a week, some just a few days, and others have opted to leave their deadlines unchanged but offer new online submission options instead. 

Continue reading to see our growing list of schools with extended deadlines.  Let us know if you have others to add to the list.