Duke applications take a slight dip

Duke University's applications decreased 4.6 percent for the fall freshman class, but the applicant pool is still the second largest on record, the university announced Tuesday.

The numbers were greeted with a sigh of relief by Duke officials, who feared a significant drop in applications in the aftermath of the lacrosse scandal that has made national news for 10 months. Early admission applicants had decreased by nearly 20 percent.

This year's overall decrease follows five straight record-setting years for applications. Last year, 19,387 students applied. This year's total was 18,495.

"Any time we get the second-highest number of applications in our history, regardless of what happened the year before, I'm happy," said Christoph Guttentag, dean of undergraduate admissions. "That's just good news in any context."

Guttentag said he doubted there would be a decline in academic quality in this fall's freshman class, despite the slight decrease in applications.

Duke poured resources into recruiting the past few months to offset coverage of the sexual-assault case involving three former members of the lacrosse team. About 600 current students volunteered to give tours, host visitors and return to their high schools to help spread positive messages about Duke. The university mailed about 70,000 booklets that focused on some of Duke's most accomplished students.

Guttentag said the student volunteers were successful recruiters.

"It's not just what you say but how you say it and who says it," he said. "They helped people to understand who Duke students really were, separate from anything that may have been painted in the media."

Applications from Hispanic, Asian and international students rose above last year's total, but applications from blacks decreased slightly. The case, in which the accuser is black and the accused players are white, highlighted racial divisions on campus last year.

Fifty-one percent of the applicants were women -- the same percentage as last year, Guttentag said.

The applications included 700 from children of Duke alumni and a record 1,756 from students in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Opportunity seen?

Duke will review the applications during the next three months, with an eye toward a freshman class of 1,665 in the fall. Another key indicator of the lacrosse fallout will be Duke's yield -- the number of students who accept Duke's offer of admission.

Applications might be healthier because some students saw an opportunity to win admission when the university was in a weakened state, said Steven Roy Goodman, a college admissions consultant in Washington.

"What we don't know -- and what Duke isn't going to tell us -- is how strong this group is on the margins," Goodman said.

He said some of the students he advises chose not to apply to Duke for early admission because there was too much uncertainty about the situation. Now, he said, as the evidence against the players has deteriorated, "a lot of the students just began to realize that from their perspective, this was a hyped case."

That might have spurred more students to apply by the regular deadline Jan. 2.

Guttentag said Duke applicants are sophisticated about the process and made their decisions based on an overall picture of the university.

"Duke is no different than it was a year ago," he said. "In the end, most people understood that."