<p>I'm starting to wonder if college acceptance rates are actually accurate? I've been seeing some admission graphs corresponding gpa with test scores on an X and Y graph and I've noticed there weren't many red dots (rejected) on their graphs. Do colleges hide the stats of the rejected applicants or are they over-exaggerating on their acceptance rates? Plz help!</p>
<p>At whose graphs are you looking? If you’re thinking of sites like parchment, yes they are highly inaccurate because they depend on self-reporting.</p>
<p>No I know parchment is really inaccurate! I’m talking about sites such as cappex.</p>
<p>oh. I think it’s just a sample amount they show.</p>
<p>Yea that’s what I thought too! It would be helpful though if colleges showed the stats of the rejected students, it would help!</p>
<p>actually getting accepted/rejected to a college is very random at selective schools. Even if you try guessing based on previous stats, you will still not be able to know for sure if you will get in.</p>
<p>Really? That’s interesting! What about colleges that accept 60-80% of applicants? Are those ones random too? Plz help haha!</p>
<p>well 60-80% will definitely show that if you apply, you do have a pretty good chance of getting in if your grades match their range. There is no school that’s 100% sure.</p>
<p>Well my GPA is under a 3.0, which is below average for the schools I’m applying to but my ACT scores are on par with all of them. So do I stand a chance then?</p>
<p>You do a have a chance. Test scores and GPA is just one part of the app. They look at other things like EC and essay. just make sure make a list of safety schools( GPA, scores lower than what you have), target schools (scores and GPA on target), and reach schools ( scores and GPA may be above what you have… schools that you get accepted to will be your safeties if the decisions come out faster than other schools.</p>
<p>Alright thanks! What colleges did you apply to and what were your reaches, matches, and safeties?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Actually, open admission community colleges you can be 100% sure about. Also, if there are colleges which have some sort of assured admission (or assured merit scholarship) based on stats that you have (e.g. Texas public universities’ class rank based automatic admission, Iowa public universities’ Regents’ Admission Index, and the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a> ), then you have more 100% certain options if you do not flunk senior year in high school badly enough to get admission offers rescinded.</p>
<p>Well I’m thinking about applying to some flagship universities so I’m not sure if they have any!</p>
<p>Yeah was refering to 4 year colleges only.
Uhm my stats goes like this. 3.6 GPA, 1700 SAT in NY
safeties:
CUNY schools
target schools:
Stony, Buffalo, manhattan college, clarkson, RIT
Reaches:
Cornell, NYU poly, syracuse…</p>
<p>I hope you don’t take this too harshly and it just puts you in perspective.</p>
<p>The acceptance rate at these colleges are low because people like you are applying to schools you simply have no chance of getting into (Cornell). You just don’t reach any of the statistical qualifications. Everyone wants to give it a shot, but it is rarely successful.</p>
<p>Not trying to bash you, just trying to explain why they are so low.</p>
<p>Yes I understand this is why it’s my high reach schools. I’m appllying to their opportunity program and my grades fall in their range for that so that being said, i could still give it a try. I was given that suggestion. But yeah thanks for pointing that out.</p>
<p>Yea I hate when people who are totally unqualified apply to the most selective colleges…</p>
<p>The problem with relying on published college acceptance rates is that they aren’t granular enough to be meaningful in many cases. You can look at the Common Data Set for each school and that helps. But what it doesn’t say is what percent of the class they took ED or EA, for example (usually much higher than the ‘average’ acceptance rate), or how many seats were reserved for recruited athletes. It doesn’t give you a sense of how critical to their mission including low income, first-generation-to-college, international students or URMs is. If you don’t fall into any of these categories (no hook, no ED), how many seats are there REALLY available for people like you? Probably many fewer than the acceptance rate might lead you to believe.</p>
<p>Lastly, I don’t think admission is mostly ‘random’ at the highly selective schools or elsewhere. I do think admissions is poorly understood by a lot of students who think its all about grades, test scores and class rank - without realizing that those schools could fill their classes many times over with the ‘top performers.’ And that sometimes someone who isn’t a ‘top performer’ academically has something else to offer that isn’t obvious. </p>
<p>For your purposes, though, the Common Data Set is your friend.</p>
<p>Also as others have implied, reaches should be schools that have taken students like you before OR that some of your qualifications fall within the 50% tile! Reaches are NOT schools that are “OUT OF REACH”! One poster placed Syracuse in the reach category with Cornell. Either Syracuse is a reach and Cornell is out of reach or Syracuse is a match and Cornell is a reach! Two completely different levels of admission criteria!</p>
<p>Yeah I figured Syracuse might be a high match instead of a reach. But Cornell is a very high reach. ^</p>