Caltech Admissions
In “More Colleges Filling Freshman Spots Early” (Feb. 9) you bring to the fore many of the issues, concerns and anxieties faced by students, counselors and college admission offices. While helpful in describing the various admission plans and practices, in reporting the statistics you may have inadvertently contributed to one level of anxiety.
Those schools following the “early action,” nonbinding admission process (Caltech among them) will ultimately admit a larger number of applicants than your statistics show. This year, as in the past several years, Caltech will offer admission to a combined early action and regular decision total of 500 students. From this admitted group we hope 215 students will decide to matriculate in the fall. Thus, our 130 early action admits represent only 26%, not 60%, of the total to be admitted.
I hope this information, which is consistent with other schools following early action plans, helps to alleviate any undue anxiety among applicants and their parents.
CHARLENE LIEBAU
Director of Admissions
Caltech, Pasadena
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