Students who take a year off before college are often more mature and better able to handle the academics, Furstenberg said.
While Dartmouth’s offer might be good news for those who will take advantage of it this year, it is bad news for those high schoolers applying to the Class of 2006. The large yield for this year will likely result in a smaller target for next year, and if even more students defer from ’05 to ’06, the number of acceptances could sink even lower, according to Furstenberg.
Advertisement
—Staff writer Garrett M. Graff can be reached at ggraff@fas.harvard.edu.