How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
After several weeks of ambivalent e-mails from the admissions office, 11,136 high school seniors received one unequivocal message from NYU — they were accepted.
This fall the university had another record-breaking year for applications, receiving a total of 38,037 from hopeful students. About 29.2 percent were admitted, a small increase from last year's 28.3 percent.
"This has been a great year for us, and we are always interested in being able to recruit and enroll an amazingly talented class, and we are on track to do just that," said Randall Deike, vice president for enrollment management. "I'm especially impressed with our students and prospective students."
Last year 34.6 percent of admitted students opted for NYU, and the university expects a similar number this year.
Admissions still expects the economy to impact students' decisions to attend.
"We are certainly listening to our families as we move through the admission and financial aid process," Deike said.
George Washington University in Washington, D.C. also reported another successful year for admission, accepting 31.5 percent of its 21,135 applicants. According to a GW press release, this year has been "its most selective year to date."
Duke University in Durham, N.C., has also been experiencing a decrease in its acceptance rates. Over the last two years, its rates have dropped from 21 percent to 15 percent.
"It appears to be part of an ongoing trend," said Christoph Guttentag, dean of undergraduate admissions at Duke. "We know it can't go on forever, but it will be interesting to see what happens in the future."
Guttentag said they strive to create an academically strong freshman class, but they also look for students that take advantage of opportunity.
"We look for students ... that are movers and shakers," he said. "We've been very successful and we're very hopeful that this will be a good year in that respect."
Jordan Alper, a senior at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, Calif., applied to nine other schools before deciding to become part of Gallatin's class of 2014.
"I chose NYU because of the Gallatin program, the fact that NYU simply has classes that most other schools don't offer, and the location, of course," he said. "I really liked the array of classes offered, and found myself wanting to take most of them."
Alper plans to study a combination of business and journalism, but he imagines his concentration will "refine itself over time."
"Creating my own inter-disciplinary concentration is perfect for me as well because I would have a hard time choosing just one area to focus on for four years," he said.
