Admit Rate comparisons at top LACs?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>So I'm a rising senior focused on applying to the LACs. </p>

<p>Brief Background: I go to a highly competitive high school where I've got a 3.65 UW GPA, a 2340, 5's on AP French, Spanish, Lit, and APUSH and 3 760+ SAT IIs. I'm also hugely involved in my school community through many different clubs and committees w/ lots of leadership positions. I've done some solid ECs outside of school as well. </p>

<p>Here's the issue.
In a recent decision with my college counselor, he said this: </p>

<p>"While you've got a good shot at getting in to Middlebury or Bowdoin, I would say that Williams and Swarthmore are only marginally feasible." </p>

<p>I appreciate that my GPA isn't stellar and that I don't necessarily merit admission at these schools, but I am curious about the distinctions within the four (and beyond, really).</p>

<p>Admit Rates for the class of 2017 at these colleges were as follows: </p>

<p>Middlebury: 18 %
Williams: 17 %
Bowdoin:16%
Swarthmore: 14 %</p>

<p>So how does Bowdoin become a low/mid. reach when Williams, which has a higher admit rate, is apparently nearly unattainable? Does the 1% separating Williams and Midd. make a real difference? And does Swarthmore really pull away from the pack in terms of selectivity? </p>

<p>This 14%-18% seems relatively arbitrary to me, along with the modern-day distinction between Amherst, Swarthmore and Williams vs. Some of the other NESCACs. </p>

<p>Anyone able to shed some light on the nuances here?</p>

2

<p>People go a lot by rankings; Williams is consistently ranked #1 or #2 on national LAC rankings, while Bowdoin doesn’t crack the top 5, so people automatically assume Williams is harder to get into. </p>

<p>That being said, some schools have higher admission rates but also higher average applicant test scores and GPAs, so while it looks less selective than another college with a lower admission rate, it’s harder to get into because of the strong stats needed.</p>

3

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</p>

<p>Acceptance rate isn’t the only component when considering a college’s selectivity. Schools like Williams and Middlebury have much larger classes to fill than Bowdoin or Amherst, so they must accept more students to fill those classes. If Middlebury were suddenly to go from 2,600 students to 1,800 students, it would certainly have an acceptance rate comparable to Bowdoin or Swarthmore. Fewer seats means more competition for those seats.</p>

4

<p>For the Bowdoin Class of 2017, 7052 applied and 1053 were admitted, which would be an acceptance rate of 14.9%</p>