<p>Just saw this article and thought you all might be interested:</p>
<p>[Class</a> of 2012 Breaks BU Records | BU Today](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/today/2008/02/22/class-2012-breaks-bu-records]Class”>http://www.bu.edu/today/2008/02/22/class-2012-breaks-bu-records)</p>
<p>Why is every single school that I applied to getting more applicants than ever before? Does this mean the acceptance rate is going to go down and by how much?</p>
<p>12 percent, right?</p>
<p>These numbers are startling, but what's important to remember is that while BU is an excellent school (and certainly at the top of my list), some of the top people use it as a safety to others like Tufts, Harvard, Brandeis, and MIT...</p>
<p>With that in mind, the acceptance rate (59% last year) should only drop a few percentage points for the Class of 2012.</p>
<p>More applicants because people, especially girls, are nervous about getting in. It's tough for girls these days, with nearly 10% more applying than boys, so they apply more places and can't be sure where they'll get in. The article notes that, as well as the impact of the Common App. BTW, the admissions director is very nice.</p>
<p>BU's acceptance rate will remain high for a bunch of reasons. First, they need to generate a large class. Second, BU is often a second choice, particularly for kids from the New York area. Third, BU is a private school, is therefore expensive and kids will choose a cheaper option (or one closer to home). Note that while BU is in MA, only 20% of the class comes from the state. If you work backwards from a class of 4200, then you come up a lot of acceptances.</p>
<p>Man, USC had a large number of people apply too and this year they're accepting a whole lot less. =/ It seems most schools I'm applying to have a lot more applicants than before.</p>
<p>The explanation is teenage insecurity, plain and simple. Last time I checked, the population was increasing at most at VERY low single digits in percentage terms. The college admissions hysteria has been brought to a level that drives kids to apply to more colleges than they should be. The net result is what you would expect from a zero-sum game. Admission rates go down, making schools look more "selective", but yields do not change appreciably. Since admission rates help school rankings, noone except the very top schools is trying to do anything about it.</p>
<p>yeah i have a friend who applied to 18 colleges!! i admit i applied to 8 which is still quite a lot... but i think that's acceptable. back in my sister's days (circa 6 years ago) most ppl only applied to 3 or 4... so i think lotsa colleges take into consideration that not every single accepted student will actually attend. i guess the problem is knowing who...</p>
<p>but i guess those who got straight A's and A+'s and got really high SAT and such would be applying to BU as a safety and rather reach for MIT and harvard and stuff, so BU might know. but then again they cant exactly reject those ppl right? soooo i dunno...</p>
<p>Yeah, BU wouldn't reject those people, but they do know they might not come. They work those factors into the number of people they admit.</p>
<p>I applied to seven schools. ^_^;; I know what you mean. Back in the day people didn't apply to so many, but most people I know applied with about the same number of schools.</p>
<p>Though the population is not growing at a high rate, more people are applying to college. And the amount of capacity has not kept up with the increase. </p>
<p>For girls, the main factor is that 60% of college apps are from girls, which means a significant increase in competition.</p>
<p>But 60% of the students at the school are also girls, so it doesn't really make a huge difference.</p>
<p>yeah even more than 60..but that's just BU in particular.</p>
<p>Adding on to what a few people have said, we are seeing the last generation of the "baby boomers" graduating. The numbers for kids applying to college, can be said to be artificially high. In a few years I predict that you would actually see and expoenential decline in the number of students who apply. But if you are a minority like me, you will always have the upper-hand. Futhermore if you are awesome and the addmission counselors choose you cool and if not the school was probably was not for you. In short if it is meant to be it will be.</p>
<p>Why is there a large female population in BU?</p>
<p>The ratio has been constant at about 60:40 for a bunch of years. That may not sound like a huge difference but think about it: 20 points, 20 more women than men per hundred. And that is what schools everywhere are experiencing. BU is not the exception.</p>
<p>Some reasons are:
- more women now going to college.
- fewer women prevented from going to college. "Prevented" means a couple of things, like military service, like women are less likely to drop out of high school, like fewer young women in jail (by a lot).
- economists are arguing (see Tim Harford) that so many young men, particularly minority males, are in jail or prison (or have dropped out) that women are reacting by getting more education so they can better fend for themselves.</p>
<p>Most schools do have lower standards for men. BU has said they don't, but who knows?</p>