Rather than check the mailbox each day for news, this year’s applicants to Yale College were able to learn from Yale’s website whether they had been accepted.
An overwhelming majority of the applicants used the Internet to determine their status, logging in to the interactive site beginning at 9 a.m. on April 3 and receiving a response almost instantly. More than 3,000 applicants visited the site in the first hour. By 9 p.m., more than 9,700 applicants had logged on to the web page, including 1,190 of the nearly 1,500 admitted students.
“It really was quite flawless,” Richard H. Shaw Jr., dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, said of the new system’s debut. He noted that the flood of phone calls the admissions office usually receives from applicants never came this year.
“We are proud of the site because it makes the admitted students feel like they are part of the Yale community right away,” said Nathan Gault, the project’s manager, who said the idea for the website grew out of a conversation he had with Yale sophomore Alexander Clark.
Applicants who learned of their admittance from the interactive website were linked to a personal page on which they had previously indicated their academic and extracurricular interests. The page had the names and e-mail addresses of current Yale students who can answer questions about the admitted student’s interests. The admitted student could also view a map of the United States that indicated where other applicants and admitted students are from, and whether any former students from their high school are currently at Yale.
The website also provided information about “Bulldog Days,” which give admitted students an opportunity to learn what it is like to live at Yale. Hundreds of admitted students have registered on-line to attend the three-night stay on campus this spring.
The total applications to Yale College this year for the Class of 2006 was 15,443, an all-time high. A total of 2,008 students were admitted, including students who gained admission through the early decision process.
The URL for the Yale undergraduate admissions website is: www.yale.edu/admit
