In the first year since NYU added a second early decision option to its admissions process, the university has seen a 43 percent surge in the number of early decision applicants to the Washington Square campus.
Of the roughly 5,500 students who applied early decision to NYU New York, about half applied by the Early Decision II option.
Assistant vice president of undergraduate admissions Shawn Abbott said the increase in early decision applicants will likely affect the number of students accepted from the regular decision pool.
"With Early Decision II firmly in place, it is likely that we will go out with a smaller number of Regular Decision admission offers this year," he said. "At the very least, given the larger applicant pool this year, the admit rate overall will almost certainly be lower than what we experienced last year."
The number of early decision applicants to NYU Abu Dhabi increased by 70 percent. About 54 percent of Abu Dhabi applicants applied to both the New York and Abu Dhabi campuses.
Despite the increase in early applicants, the university accepted roughly the same percentage of early decision applications as last year. NYU accepted about 36 percent of early decision applicants to the class of 2015 and about 35 percent to the class of 2014.
However, NYU's Early Decision II option proved much more selective than Early Decision I. While about 53 percent of Early Decision I applicants were accepted, NYU only accepted 18 percent of the Early Decision II pool.
Also selective was NYUAD's early decision process. Of the 792 students who applied Early Decision II to Abu Dhabi, including students who applied to both campuses, only 40 were accepted, about 5 percent. However, only 367 students applied directly to Abu Dhabi.
This year, NYU also deviated from its usual policy of not deferring early decision applicants to the regular decision pool. According to Abbott, NYU deferred "fewer than a handful" of Early Decision II applicants to regular decision.
"NYU's general policy is not to defer a candidate who has requested an 'early decision' on his or her application," Abbott said. "We have, however, made an executive decision in relatively rare cases to defer a candidate to the regular decision round."
High school student Hayley Sadoff was admitted after she applied Early Decision II to the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
"Ultimately, I knew that my top choice was NYU, so I was committed enough to choose Early Decision II rather than regular decision," she said. "I decided that Early Decision II would be the best because it gave me enough time to synthesize my essay ideas and put my finishing touches on my application."
