Princeton, Brown freshman applications fall

NEW YORK - Princeton University reported a 1.7 percent drop in freshman applications for the 2012-2013 academic year, the latest Ivy League school to experience a decline after years of record increases.

Princeton received 26,663 applications, down from 27,115 a year earlier, according to a statement Monday on the website of the school in Princeton, N.J.

Tuition and fees for the next school year will rise 4.5 percent, the highest percentage gain in six years, the college said on Jan. 28. Its financial aid budget will be $116 million.

Freshman applications dropped 1.9 percent at Harvard University, 1.7 percent at the University of Pennsylvania, 8.9 percent at Columbia University and about 7 percent at Brown University, the colleges reported. The Ivy League consists of eight schools in the northeastern U.S.