Decisions mailed; by Matt McGann '00

At 3:08pm today, we completed the preparation of the decision mailing, and at a quarter to five, the mailman came to post the letters. Sadly, I missed the photo of the postman coming to take away the letters.

We have admitted under 1500 students, for an all-time low admit rate of 14%. Fewer than 500 students are on the waitlist. More than 8,000 students, or 80+% of applicants, will receive letters informing them that we do not have room for them in the class. It has been our most competitive year ever, and the applications were simply fantastic. I'm sad that we have to turn away 4 out of every 5 applicants. I wish I could say something inspirational here that would make the hurt of not being admitted go away, something that would make the vast majority of you not be disappointed. But there's really nothing more I can say. I hope this blog has been helpful for you this year, no matter how things turn out for you.

I can tell you that the Admit Letter is 10" x 13", and the waitlist and deny letters each come in a standard #10 window envelope (4.125" x 9.5"). Letters probably won't get too much farther than Metro Boston by tomorrow's mail, so for most of you, decisions will arrive early next week (for many, on Pi Day!). Some folks were calling the office today asking for their decision (reasons: I'm going on vacation, it's my birthday, etc.), but we won't release any decisions over the phone until Friday, March 18.

Thank you all for making my first year of blogging very interesting and enjoyable. It's been a great learning experience for me, and has allowed me to understand your thoughts and concerns better, and thus to be able to serve you better. I've really enjoyed your ideas, thoughts, and comments. Thank you for reading and for being a great audience. This isn't to say that this is the end of blogging for me — I'll keep going through May 1, into the summer, next year's application cycle and for the foreseeable future. In fact, I received word today that I've been accepted as a presenter at a national admissions conference in the fall, where I'll try to convince more admissions offices and officers across the country to blog.

I hope you have a great weekend. Best wishes to all of you.