<p>The Columbia website now contains official data regarding those admitted to the College and SEAS (or CE, as apparently it's now called). Among the interesting tidbits is the fact that the middle 50% scored between 2150 and 2320 on the SAT and between 32 and 35 on the ACT. For those from high schools that report class rank, 98% were in the top 10% of the class.</p>
<p>The Common Application may have caused the surge in applications (at least in part), but the objective qualifications of the admitted class increased as well.</p>
<p>I’ve never understood the relevance of enrolled stats. Presumably the colleges post this sort of information so prospective students can determine whether they’re in the ballpark for admission, not enrollment (which obviously is subject to admission). Columbia has, at least the last several years, posted admissions stats. I applaud them for it. Enrollment stats might give false hope to prospective students who are seeking admission, not wait list status.</p>
<p>It sates the curiosity to know how strong Columbia’s students are.</p>
<p>The only useful tidbit one can derive from this admitted students data is that one better damn well be in the top tenth percentile of one’s graduating class if one is applying from a high school that ranks.</p>
<p>“The Common Application may have caused the surge in applications (at least in part), but the objective qualifications of the admitted class increased as well.”</p>
<p>How is that surprising? If an extra 6,000 people who will never be admitted, why would that drag down the qualifications of admitted students?</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to imply that I’m surprised, because I’m not. I was simply responding in advance to those who have placed undue influence on the Common Application “effect” on the surge in applications, stating or implying that the extra applications were somehow “subpar.” Did you note, pwoods, that this year’s admitted class had even higher objective statistics than your class?</p>
<p>As to curiosity regarding the delta between the objective statistics of admitted and enrolled students, I too am curious. I believe, however, that the mission of publishing this kind of data is best served by publishing only admitted students’ data, and not enrolled. I’m willing to leave my curiosity unsatisfied.</p>
<p>Go to the Columbia website, then Admissions, then Schools, then Columbia College, then Applications and Admissions Process, then Admissions Statistics. See, it’s not that hard.</p>
<p>Penn:
American Indian 1.1%
Asian 20.1%
Black 10.8%
Hawaiian 0.2%
Latino 11.1%</p>
<p>Harvard:
African American: 12%
Asian American:18%
Latino or Hispanic: 12%
Native American or Pacific Islander: 2%
White 45.2%
Unknown/Not Reported 11.5%</p>
<p>Princeton:
African America: 7.4
American Indian: 0.2
Asian American: 18.6
Hispanic/Latino: 7.1
Multiracial (non-Hispanic): 4.8
International: 11</p>
<p>^I’m not questioning your numbers, but do you have a source for the number of Harvard and Columbia waitlist admits?</p>
<p>As I recall, two years ago Columbia had no waitlist admits and Harvard had a bunch. The pendulum swings. In any event, I still believe that admissions data should be about what it takes to gain admission, rather than (i) what it takes to gain admission or get on the waitlist or (ii) what it takes to gain admission, get on the waitlist and gain admission from the waitlist.</p>
<p>pbr, you do understand that if you don’t include the amount of students gaining admission from the waitlist, then schools will game the system by admitting very few students initially and a whole bunch from the waitlist later on - thereby falsely resulting in a low admit rate…</p>
<p>If you are trying to establish that Harvard has a “smarter” student class from the admission statistics you should do more work. For one thing, Harvard and Columbia have different early admission policies, they have different diversity policies. Columbia has a specialized school of engineering which attracts a very unique kind of candidate. So if you must compare, if you are that insecure, do a little more digging. From the vantage point of age though I must advise you that once you get into either school, what you do with your life depends very much on who you are and how you use your time. Get off this message board and work on your books.</p>
<p>I did not say that from anything that I have posted up to now, but now that you mention it, there is now doubt that Harvard has a “smarter” student class than Columbia, hands down…</p>