7.1; 8.3; 9.25

I bet many of you have figured out what the above numbers represent. Like many Princetonians, I eagerly awaited the admissions stats of 2008, and was astounded by the numbers when they finally came out. Days later, the admissions article is still the number 3 most viewed on The Prince. The numbers were even important enough for The New York Times to report.

To some, the phenomenon of inadvertant admissions rate memorization is a case of mass schadenfreude. As acceptance rates decline, so do high schoolers' self esteem. Then there's also the opposite of affect. As acceptance rates decline, the egos of the people who do get in starts to rise. Case in point: PU Undergrad posts "I'd like to consider myself a better fit for Princeton than both of those people that they denied. They were certainly smart, but immensely over committed to academics...And the admissions officers saw that, which I was shocked and overjoyed about. "