<p>2012? So people who just finished senior highschool year? US News and your numbers are different... why is that..Johns Hopkins 21.6%.. US news says 27 %... that is a lot of difference</p>
<p>FWIW, you are not statistically more likely to get into a reach school by applying to more reach schools. In order for that to be true, admissions would need to be a random event, and they are not.</p>
<p>Wow, those numbers are scary. But it's even scarier to think of how many colleges people will start applying to--when will people realize prestige isn't everything?</p>
<p>Well, let's be honest; no one's going to think "hey, if I don't apply to all of these schools, I'll be able to help everyone else!" Of course people are going to apply to more schools... it's unfortunate but inevitable.</p>
<p>If you want to change it, you'll have to fix the system... somehow.</p>
<p>@ kyledavid: I think admissions are enough of a random event to warrant applying to more schools. Just look at the results for people who apply to the ivies...</p>
<p>Ultimately, college admissions is a selfish game in which every advantage counts , and that includes applying to more schools. If someone is in the ballpark for Harvard, it would be plain stupid for them to apply only to Harvard. If they apply to both Princeton and Harvard they have a better chance at going to a top school. </p>
<p>Anyways, I see nothing wrong with applying to more than a couple schools. The better people will get in anyways, and as long as they responsibly manage their acceptances (by deciding quickly so that waitlisted people are notified as soon as possible) then I don't see any detrimental effects occurring. Also, I think that the low admissions rates are also affected a lot by other factors than people applying to more schools.</p>
<p>acceptance rate doesn't work like that 1putt59, you need to take into account yield. I guarantee that Washington and Lee has a lot higher acceptance rate than that, if you do that with Wash U they have 6% (obviously wrong)</p>
<p>I beg to differ. I am a W&L alum, and received the following e-mail from the school:</p>
<p>"Dean of Admissions William Hartog knew this year was going to be one for the record books long before the January 15th application deadline. “The advent of our new Johnson Scholarship Program brought a great deal of positive attention to W&L this year, and that translated into the largest applicant pool in the University’s history,” he said. </p>
<p>The admission staff recently completed its review of the 6,385 applications submitted for the Class of 2012, representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and 84 foreign countries. Only 968 students were offered admission to the 455-member class of first year students, for an admission rate of 15%. “This group of accepted students is the strongest ever admitted to W&L, by any measurable standard,” Hartog said."</p>
<p>The earliest you can get final, authoritative numbers is in JANUARY for the class of high school students who entered the previous fall. Many colleges have "summer melt" (that is, some admitted students decide not to attend) and have to go to their waiting lists to fill their classes. So in January 2009, you will be able to get Common Data Set figures in various places online (I usually use the College Board website) for members of high school class of 2008 (college class of 2012). Those will APPROXIMATELY match, with some trends up or down, what you face now as a member of (I'm guessing) high school class of 2009 applying for college class of 2013. The figures available today (August 2008) that are comparable from one college to another are figures for high school class of 2007.</p>