The number of applications to Princeton and Yale stayed roughly the same, and the percentages of students admitted to Yale and Princeton were unavailable yesterday.
At the University of Pennsylvania--a university with a binding early decision program--the number of applicants rose only moderately, from 2,165 to 2,570. Penn admitted 997, or 82 more than last year, according to Kristen Buppert of the Penn admissions office.
The Yale Daily News reported that application rates in New Haven rose by only 2 percent.
Princeton, which requires that early applicants apply to Princeton exclusively, received about the same number of applications this year as last year, according to the Daily Princetonian.
MIT's Jones said the volume of applications is due in large part to the changes in policy at other schools.
"We had a huge lift this year," Jones said. "The change is part of it, but it's not the whole thing."
Jones said the climb at MIT and at other schools is also due to a larger number of young people applying to college. Numbers are rising because early action and early decision programs are looking more attractive to high school students, according to Jones.
MIT's early applicant pool rose from 2,188 in 1998 to 3,080 this year. MIT accepted 541 early applicants, 31 more than last year.