The numbers posted on the website today:
https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/facts/common_data_sets/2018
Bad year to be on the wait list, I see. 492 frosh, that’s too many I think. Did it affect first year housing, do you know?
Whoa. First gen is marked as “very important”?
And only 181 kids accepted ED out of about 1250 admitted total. That percentage isn’t that high compared to some other schools.
@OHMomof2 Amherst did have to triple up some rooms in the quad. It is likely Admissions will be careful not to over-enroll this year accepting fewer in RD and then going to the wait list if needed. There is a new Dean of Admissions who might handle things differently this year.
Of possible interest, Amherst seems to exercise a form of superscoring on its CDS by reporting the higher equivalent exam – ACT or SAT – in cases in which a student submitted both. So it might appear that only 33% percent of enrolled students submitted the SAT 1, but the likelihood is that a percentage of students above this had their scores superseded by a higher equivalent ACT exam. In cases in which the ACT was the weaker exam, the converse would be true. This standard of reporting tends to somewhat inflate apparent scores, and is not unique to Amherst.
@merc81 that’s interesting about the scores. I just assumed CDSs just report all SAT and ACT scores of accepted students. How do you know that a school only reports the highest of one? I don’t know how many kids would report an ACT and an SAT that don’t match up. I would think they would only send the higher of the two.
If a figure appears too neat, then it has probably been shaped to fit a format. In the case of Amherst, its combined ACT and SAT figures total to an orderly 100% of students (with a single extraneous submission, a distraction probably best left ignored).
As to why a student should report both exams when they are somewhat uneven but still both “good,” the two exams can offer offsetting indications in the case of section scores that may complement each other across exams while offering substantiating data points for each other in general.
472 applied ED. That seems low.
@wisteria100 Williams was about the same. I think a little over 500.
@homerdog Williams had around 700 ED applicants this year, and slightly more than that last year.
@wisteria100 ah sorry I was wrong!
They spoke of the over enrollment this year when we were there for Family weekend, saying that even though it wasn’t that many, they really do only have beds for 470 freshmen. So yes, I think the number was about 16? triples were quickly set up. My daughter wasn’t one of those, but I actually think it would have been kind of fun. #themorethemerrier
@merc81 I’m confused about this:
The CDS says
Percent submitting SAT scores 57% 279
C9 Percent submitting ACT scores 60% 295
That’s definitely more than 100%.
The score breakdowns for each test type equal 100% but they’d have to since they’re looking at the score distributions of the 279 SAT scores submitted and the 295 ACT scores submitted.
No?
Interesting to me that only 23% of students submitted class rank. That’s a significant minority of high schools ranking. Is that normal everywhere else?
I agree @OHMomof2
@homerdog wrote
CDSs report details of enrolled, not accepted students. I am also interested in knowing how they handle score reporting…is it just what the matriculant actually submitted on the app and/or sent from collegeboard and/or ACT? Or does it include scores that the high schools may report on final transcript?
Our high school does report the state SAT score (and that is the only score they report on final transcript), which for a number of kids including my D is significantly lower than ACT score (which most kids in our area still focus on)…so not sure if that SAT score would make it into the CDS. I expect at some schools it would, while others it wouldn’t…there is much inconsistency on how schools fill out CDSs.
@OHMomof2: Could you post where you see those CDS figures? This is what I see in part C:
Percent submitting SAT scores: 33% (155 students)
Percent submitting ACT scores: 67% (317 students)
@merc81 - https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/C%2520Admission_2.pdf - page 3
That’s linked on the page in the OP.
@OHMomof2: I see now! I had to choose to download the file “again” in order to see the fresh figures. Interestingly though, Amherst may have changed (I’d say improved) its reporting standards for this latest version of its CDS.
@wisteria100 Williams early decision applications were down a bit this year to 688 while Amherst’s increased by 9% to 514. Still small numbers so will see variation from year to year. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/01/05/early-college-admissions-by-numbers/?utm_term=.c7bfd697bd89