Admissions Stats

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>Does anyone know what the latest 25 - 75 percentiles for SAT / ACT for enrolled students? </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>2 years ago (enrolled):
SAT Critical Reading 680 760
SAT Math 700 780
SAT Writing 680 770<br>
ACT Composite 31 34</p>

3

<p>I really hate the 25/75 stat because we don’t know where the middle 50% lies. Is it right in the middle of 25/75 points or as I suspect is it much closer to the 25% point? For all we know 75% of the admitted students could have an SAT of at least 2250. If true the 25/75 stat, I think, gives students false hope. Just my opinion.</p>

4

<p>Median SAT for ADMITTED students this year (Class of 2017) is > 1500
Median ACT > 34</p>

<p>It’ll be several months before enrolled student number are known</p>

5

<p>This quote from an article about the Class of 2015 (two years ago) put admissions stats into perspective for me…</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>In other words, if Northwestern wanted to, it could completely fill its incoming class with kids with basically perfect test scores.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northwestern-university/1114541-nu-overall-acceptance-rate-18-down-27-just-2-years-ago.html?highlight=class+of+2015[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northwestern-university/1114541-nu-overall-acceptance-rate-18-down-27-just-2-years-ago.html?highlight=class+of+2015&lt;/a&gt;
(these stats are from 2011)</p>

6

<p>Momcares - "Over 3,300 applicants with a 1500 SAT (CR+M) or higher (the equivalent of a 34 ACT) were not offered admission. "</p>

<p>That’s why I insisted my son have safety schools - just in case. Even though it all turned out ok and he is a Wildcat, I think he understood the rational.</p>

7

<p>@nugraddad – same here and our S had VERY high stats. </p>

<p>IMHO, anyone who considers Northwestern anything but a reach is naive, and those fortunate few who are admitted need to recognize that a certain amount of luck was on their side. We know many EXTREMELY qualified and well-rounded kids who would have been a perfect fit at NU who were not admitted the past couple of years.</p>

<p>NU is not a safety for anyone anymore.</p>

8

<p>It hasn’t been a safety for anybody for years.</p>

9

<p>FWIW – with my D – we classed NU as “high match” which for us meant that she was a statistical match but with the tiny admissions % – there are as many or more with those stats who are denied as accepted.</p>

10

<p>A more representative way to show the stat is a 75/25% instead of a 25/75%. E.G. 75% had an SAT over 2250 with 25% under. Why all the subterfuge? (For rankings, I guess?)</p>

11

<p>^Am I missing something?</p>

<p>The 25th-percentile gives you the “75% over and 25% under” point you want.</p>

<p>The 75th-percentile gives you an <em>additional</em> information - 25% over and 75% under. Are you complaining that they give too much information? :confused:</p>

<p>By the way, the middle 50% is a very common range to be used in statistics (interquartile range).</p>

12

<p>I think OP was complaining about the lack of a mean or median (i.e., the shape of the distribution).</p>

<p>Yes, IQR is a common descriptive statistic and it’s one of the data elements the Common Data Set Initiative agreed to provide to publishers such as College Board, US News, et al.</p>

13

<p>Gack. After re-reading the thread, I see it was sosomenza that was lamenting the lack of a measure of central tendency. Sorry, OP.</p>