More of this year's graduating seniors are going off to college than last year or, especially, the year before, according to the school Guidance Department.
This year, 96.7 percent of the graduating class plans to attend either a four-or two-year college or a college prep school. That's half a percentage point above last year and almost 5 percent above the class of 2010.
Paul Ribiero, Darien High School's director of guidance, told the Board of Education on Tuesday that a record number of college representatives visited the Guidance Department: 208.
Some colleges seem to really want Darien High School students: Hofstra University and Catholic University of America accepted every DHS student who applied.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on the other hand, accepted not one of the 18 Darien students who applied this year, or any from the past two years.
"I don't know why we haven't had someone from the past three years accepted to MIT," Ribiero told the school board. "That's something we're going to ask them about."
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Future Plans for Class of 2012 Graduates
Future Plans 2012 2012 2011 2010# of
Students
%
% % Four-year College 280 91.8% 93.1% 84.6% Two-year College 9 3.0% 2.2% 5.3% College Prep School 6 2.0% 0.9% 1.0% SUBTOTAL to College 295 96.7% 96.2% 90.9% Military 1 0.3% 0 0 Employed 3 1.0% 1.6% 1.4% Other/Undecided 6 2.0% 1.9% 3.2% Unknown 0 0 0.3% 4.5% TOTAL 305 100% 100% 100%Source for this and all other charts: Darien High School Guidance Department
Numbers & Types of College Appications Submitted
2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 Number of Applications Submitted 2,680 2,578 2,183 2,463 2,035 Early Decision Applications 113 123 92 122 73 -- Percent of Total 4.2% 4.8% 4.2% 5.0% 3.6% Early Action Applications 755 669 584 510 318 -- Percent of Total 28.2% 26.0%26.8%
20.7% 15.6% Priority Applications 80 60 64 54 3 -- Percent of Total 3.0% 2.3% 2.9% 2.2% 0.1% Rolling Applications 201 226 179 267 221 -- Percent of Total 7.5% 8.8% 8.2% 10.8% 10.9% REGULAR APPLICATIONS 1,531 1,500 1,263 1,510 1,420 -- Percent of Total 57.1% 58.2% 57.9% 61.3% 69.8%
College Applications Per Student
YEAR 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 Number of students per class 305 321 285 305 253 Number of applications submitted 2,680 2,578 2,183 2,463 2,035 Average number of applications per student 8.8 8.0 7.7 8.1 8.0 Average number of acceptances per student 4.0 3.7 3.6 3.4 3.2 Number of different colleges DHS students applied to 380 403 348 378 365 Number of incomplete applications 383 427 291 426 324
30 Most Popular Schools for Class of 2012 College Applications
This table does not reflect how many students were put on waiting lists and deferred; the number accepted and number denied does not necessarily equal the number who applied.
Rank CollegeNumber
Darien
students
applied
Number
accepted
Number
denied
Number
attending
1st University of Connecticut 77 58 11 7 2nd Boston College 44 8 22 2 2nd University of Vermont 44 33 4 4 3rd Bucknell University 38 8 9 3 3rd Elon University 38 25 9 7 4th Loyola University (Maryland) 32 25 1 3 4th University of Richmond 32 8 4 3 5th College of Charleston 31 14 10 1 5th Miami University (Ohio) 31 21 1 4 5th University of Michigan 31 10 6 6 6th Gettysburg College 30 20 1 8 7th Boston University 29 14 8 4 7th Fordham University 29 20 4 4 7th Villanova University 29 11 2 3 8th Roger Williams University 28 20 5 1 RANK COLLEGENumber
Darien
students
applied
Number
accepted
Number
denied
Number
attending
9th University of Rhode Island 27 20 2 1 10th High Point University 26 20 1 1 10th Lehigh University 26 10 5 2 11th Northeastern University 24 7 12 0 12th University of Virginia 23 5 15 2 13th Clemson University 22 13 4 3 13th Cornell University 22 7 8 7 13th Hobart and William Smith Colleges 22 16 0 7 13th Northwestern University 22 3 14 3 14th Colgate University 21 8 4 2 14th Providence College 21 10 4 3 14th University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) 21 2 16 1 14th Wake Forest University 21 8 5 3 15th Penn State University (University Park) 20 14 2 5For the full list of schools Darien High School students applied to, see the PDF document attached to this article.
Schools accepting the highest percentages of DHS applicants in 2012
(This does not mean they were the easiest to get into.)
College Applied AcceptedPercent
Accepted
Catholic University of America 16 16 100% Hofstra University 13 13100%
Bryant University 19 18 95% University of New Haven 11 10 91% University of Maine 15 13 87% Ohio Wesleyan University 21 18 86% Purdue University 14 12 86% Furman University 13 11 85% Norwalk Community College 24 20 83% University of Alabama 17 1482%
Schools accepting the lowest percentages of DHS applicants in 2012
College Applied AcceptedPercent
accepted
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
18 0 0 Stanford University 31 2 6% Columbia University 36 3 8% Harvard University 34 3 9%University of California
(Los Angeles)
11 1 9% Duke University 43 4 9%University of North
Carolina (Chapel Hill)
40 4 10% Princeton University 30 3 10% University of Chicago 20 2 10% Swarthmore College 10 1 10%
Schools most often attended by Darien High School students over the past three years:
CollegeTotal Number of
DHS graduates
attending from
2010-2012
University of Connecticut 25 Norwalk Community College 18 Cornell University 16 Elon University 16 University of Michigan 16 Miami University (Ohio) 15 Villanova University 15 Colgate University 14 Gettysburg University 14 Loyola University (Maryland) 14 Bucknell University 12 College of Charleston 11 Franklin and Marshall College 11 University of Pennsylvania 11 University of Vermont 11 Roger Williams University 10
Colleges with the largest contingents of Darien's Class of 2012
CollegeTotal number of
DHS Class of 2012
graduates attending
Norwalk Community College 9 Gettysburg College 8 University of Connecticut 7 Cornell University 7 Elon University 7 Hobart and William Smith Colleges 7 University of Michigan 6 Pennsylvania State University 5 University of Alabama 4 Boston University 4 Colby College 4 Fordham University 4 George Washington University 4 Miami University (Ohio) 4 Southern Methodist University 4 University of Vermont 4