acceptance rate comparison

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
1

<p>These are acceptance rate changes of some of the most selective schools (the stats are from ivywise). Now Vandy is harder to get in than UPen, and if this trend continues it appears that Vandy will be the toughest school to ge admitted in the whole South next year passing Duke. My question: What happened at Vandy between 2005 (40%) and 2010 (16.28%)? Vandy's acceptance rate shows the most dramatic downward curve of all these schools.</p>

<p>School 2012 2011 2010 2005<br>
Amherst College 11.92% 12.76% 15.31% 18%<br>
Boston College 28.82% 27.88% 31.10% 38%<br>
Brown University 9.60% 8.70% 9.30% 16%<br>
Columbia University 7.42% 6.93% 9.16% 12%<br>
Cornell University 16.19% 17.95% 18.36% 31%<br>
Dartmouth College 9.43% 9.73% 11.53% 18%<br>
Duke University 11.87% 12.59% 12.60% 23%<br>
Georgetown University 16.50% 17.98% 19.28% 23%<br>
Harvard University 5.92% 6.17% 7.16% 11%<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 8.95% 9.58% 10.08% 16%<br>
Middlebury College 18.48% 17.74% 19.15% 23%<br>
Northwestern University 15.27% 18.00% 23.10% 33%<br>
Pomona College 12.82% 13.58% 14.74% 19%<br>
Princeton University 7.86% 8.39% 8.80% 10%<br>
Stanford University 6.63% 7.07% 7.31% 13%<br>
Swarthmore College 14.10% 14.92% 16.01% 25%<br>
University of California - Berkeley 19.46% 25.84% 25.60% 27%<br>
University of Notre Dame 22.71% 24.15% 27.63% 29%<br>
University of Pennsylvania 12.30% 12.26% 14.25% 29%<br>
University of Southern California 18.20% 22.77% 24.35% 27%<br>
University of Virginia 27.44% 32.28% 32.04% 39%<br>
Vanderbilt University 12.02% 15.45% 16.28% 40%<br>
Washington University in St. Louis 15.40% 15.40% 21.19% 20%<br>
Wesleyan University 19.74% 23.60% 20.55% 28%
Williams College 16.73% 17.06% 18.65% 21%<br>
Yale University 6.82% 7.35% 7.88% 11%</p>

2

<p>When did they start the no-loan financial aid?</p>

3

<p>When did they start using the commn app? All these schools are seeing lower acceptance rates. I think students apply to more schools due to the common app. Is the % of accepted students enrolling to most of these schools is lower than 5 years ago?</p>

4

<p>No loan financial aid started for the class that entered in fall of 2009. D was a senior when it was announced and those seniors were given financial aid for their last semester without loans for just the one semester.</p>

<p>Regarding selectivity:[The</a> colleges in the South with the toughest admission standards - The Business Journals](<a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/on-numbers/scott-thomas/2011/12/vanderbilt-duke-sit-atop-souths.html]The”>http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/on-numbers/scott-thomas/2011/12/vanderbilt-duke-sit-atop-souths.html)</p>

5

<p>Yeah, that explains much, but I wonder if it was all money thing that Vandy’s become an ivy caliber school. It is amazing to see that it became one of the elite of the elite schools in so short a time.</p>

6

<p>One fact: COMMON APPLICATION. Georgetown is the only school listed that has not bought in to the acceptance rate lowering game.</p>

7

<p>Common app, no supplement, began in 2008 and that was a big drop in acceptance rate.
Are there any other schools on this list that offer merit $$ and have 2 ED dates? Those factoers both make a difference.</p>

8

<p>Interestingly, in the past 5-6 years Georgetown has become the safety school behind the Ivies, UVA, Duke and Vanderbilt for many kids at our top-rated private high school. Georgetown’s lower yield probably plays in to that higher acceptance rate. The fact that they don’t use the common ap is a non-issue.</p>

9

<p>^You don’t know what you are talking about. Georgetown’s higher acceptance rate is completely due to the fact that it does NOT use the common application; Georgetown’s acceptance rate is estimated to be close to single digits if it were to go to the common application. And by the way, Georgetown’s yield is much higher than Vanderbilt, Duke, Wash. U., Northwestern, U. Chicago, Hopkins, Rice, Emory, etc. Which elite private school do your kids attend? Georgetown a backup for Duke, Vanderbilt and UVa–unlikely.</p>

10

<p>Additionally, Georgetown SFS stands as a peer to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale in the rankings published by Foreign Policy magazine and outranks all these schools at the Graduate level. (And it is not like Georgetown is in any way outside the family of top universities for any of its other undergrad programs).</p>

<p>And Medman is right. Georgetown steadfastly refuses to use the common application and requires an evaluative interview of every applicant in every corner of the world in keeping with its genuine holitstic appoach to admissions. It also does not play games with early decision, having an early action program which accepts roughly equal percentages for early and regular decision. </p>

<p>Georgetown’s stance on having a student centered admission process is frankly refreshing even if it doesn’t “impress” charliemom 1234 and their misinformed private school sufficiently.</p>

11

<p>I am in North Carolina. And never said that I am not impressed by Georgetown, of course it’s an impressive school, I just said that I had noticed a trend. Medman/vienna man, please don’t take offense, we’re all entitled to our opinions here.</p>

12

<p>For one thing, the former President, Gordon Gee, made a big diversity push, which included not just “students of color,” but also Jewish students. </p>

<p>Have you read the book The Tipping Point? I think that what’s happened is that Vanderbilt became a hot school through word of mouth. Students from areas where students are very competitive (the North East) got accepted, had a great experience, and word spread. It is a unique place in that it has high-level, highly regarded academics, a very active social scene, and SEC athletics. It tipped.</p>

13

<p>^charliemom1234: Georgetown as a safety for Duke for students that live in NC??? Highly unlikeley, given that it is considerably more easy for NC students to get in to Duke than the rest of the population. Also, NC has some solid public high schools and magnet schools but lags behind other states in “top-rated private schools”–nothing really on the order of Exeter, Andover, Choate, Harvard-Westlake, St. Paul’s, St. Alban’s, National Cathedral, Sidwell Friends, Lawrenceville, Deerfield, etc. The desirability of Georgetown at these prestigious private schools is well-established, and undoubtedly Georgetown has been, and continues to be, the choice of students at these elite schools when they are cross-admitted to Vanderbilt, Duke, UVa.</p>

14

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<p>I agree with this - Vanderbilt has always been a great university - but once more kids from the Northeast came, they all loved their experience and told their friends/siblings/etc. The higher amount of kids from the Northeast encouraged more to apply.</p>

15

<p>Medman, it’s great that you love your alma mater. BUT…you’re coming off as insecure. Every time someone claims that some school is better than Georgetown, you go into these absurd fits of rage and start denouncing the other school. Chill out. </p>

<p>Georgetown’s international relations department is very good. Everything else is decent, but not amazing.</p>

16

<p>Indecure is a university that relies on binding early decision to fill its class and is not up to competing with non-binfing ealry action. Insecure is the university that throws out merit money that a relative few will every receive (rather than treating all its applicants failrly) but that serves as fish bait for the masses to inflate the application figures. Enough said.</p>

17

<p>@vienna man: I am sorry if my post creates some inconvenience to you. But I just want to point out that Vandy could easily resort to that kind of non-binding early action or even eleminate out all kinds of early programs and then is still able to fill up a class of low-calibered (no offense here) applicants. But they DON’T do that. Vandy biggest overlaps, as I read in USnews or Fiske Guide, are Duke, Harvard, Priceton, whereas Georgetown’s are Duke, UVA, BU, UPenn… not to mention the fact of somewhat inferior geographical location that Vandy bears. The funny thing is, as you might see, Vandy is not famous with the some infamous typecast, for example, Tuft syndrome (no offense again) like Wash U or Tuft. Also, Vandy’s endowment ($3.375 billion) is about twice more than that of Georgetown ($1.162 billion).</p>

<p>Then, is it insecure when a college dare to accept applicants who might be also accepted to some of the most pretigious colleges in the US, are about hundred years older than it, and have much better location for future jobs than it? Is is insecure, then, when that college are able to draw attention from students all over US and international, and after that breed love inside those who enroll in it? </p>

<p>I understand that relying only on overlaps and myth like ‘Tuft syndrome’ is a risk, but I just want to provide another aspect that you might consider. Both Vandy and Georgetown are great schools, for sure.</p>

<p>In world of business, those who come to compete but have no plan or trick will be eliminated out. And I consider admission process is, for the most part, a kind of business.</p>

18

<p>One thing you said did strike me. When you say admissions is a business you hit the nail on the head. For too many universities, admissions is an enrollment and publcity/statistics management business. Georgetown, with its policies (having its own application to ensure the applicant has thought things trhough and is truly committed to the process, using need based aid, its all encompassing interviewing program ,etc.) treats the process far more as a mission to serve the prospective students.</p>

19

<p>In the undergraduate admission world, many, many schools have utilized various techniques to attempt to heighten their perceived selectivity–most commonly is the use of the Common Application. Other techniques are admitting a high percentage of students and the class under a binding early decision program (thus guaranteeing yielding these students), waitlisting students who are likely to prefer a more desirable college (i.e. Tufts’ Syndrome), counting incomplete and withdrawn applications in their total application count, eliminating application fees and essay requirements to promote applicants, and even counting inquiries as applications. And then, there are some schools that just lie about their admissions statistics (reference Claremont McKenna). I am extraordinarily proud that the Georgetown admissions process has always been true to the students applying as well as consistent with the core mission of the university–cura personalis. Some very good schools have found the need to resort to the admissions game, in an effort to superficially improve their student body by appearing to be more selective and superficially improve their quality by using the admissions process to improve ranking: the most obvious offenders are Washington U-St. Louis, U. Chicago, Tulane to name a few. And then there are schools that are inclined to buy students in order to improve their yield and prestige–Duke and Vanderbilt are probably the most prestigious offenders in this regard. All of this is about the business of higher education and selective colleges; it really has nothing to do with the education and experience of the students. It’s pretty sad, and disgusting.</p>

20

<p>The most fundemental thing, I believe, is that colleges implant these actions because such business does benefit the students. </p>

<p>I do agree with you that these deeds might be disgusting at some regards, such as adding so many superficial burden, both mental and financial, to the admission process, and forging many unnecessary images about admission… Personally, during this application season, I was tired and stressed out many times finding right colleges through a mass of info from various source for an international student who could only contribute very little to his college education. It was only my big desire for an US education that kept me going.</p>

<p>However, I disagree with you that this business has nothing to do with the education and experience of the students. It should be painfully admitted that, these business, while being disgusting somewhat, does some good jobs of attracting many talented students to such universities. After they are attracted, if the service and quality of the institution is good, then they will love the college (Please note that Vandy’s retention rate is the same with Georgetown’s, 96%). Thus come a stronger student body over years, and with this development comes many consequences that do benefit the students’ overall experience (more payback money, more endowment, better prof…). </p>

<p>After all, I believe that the competition is not wrong. Actually, it reflects life a lot. We all have many great, beautiful dreams that should be respected. However, problem rises when these dreams clash with each other, causing us to compete, or even fight, to protect the dreams. This will be the driving force for us to grow better, and fuel the wheel of our society as a whole. It is pretty much what many business is. All wants great, high-calibered students, and when these wants clash, business grows to serve the attracting jobs. It is for the sake of both the college and the students. In another respect, the process teaches us to make the right decision out of many possible ones. These are necessary for us as growing adults to take this responsibility.</p>

<p>Many people criticize Apple because each time it releases new version of its products, the company never produces in large amount to heighten their price. All the benefits will give the mother company more avenue, better workers who are inspired to work for a company whose products are so badly desired. These keep Apple alive and give Apple better foundation to serve the customers more. In the college admission business, in many regards, well deserved students are customers, and college are the company.</p>

<p>Vandy and Georgetown each have their own approach to such business. Georgetown, as you said, remains very intrinsic and personal to their process, making many people appreciate it. Vandy offers merit money for its desired applicants to attract them. Although it looks like Vandy’s approach is more careless, when the retention rate is the same you could not condemn it. I believe that without these business, it would take much much longer time for Vandy to be popular and diverse as it is now. After all, Georgetown and many north colleges are about hundred years older than Vandy. Many universities are not capable of ‘buying prestige’ as you said.</p>

<p>Peace.</p>