I have often noticed on CC that many people will comment about a “lower ranked” school and ask why a smart kid would want to go where there are not many smart kids. DDs friends recently said the same thing when she was debating UA vs UVA. So, that got me thinking. I’ve always figured that the top kids at most decent schools are comparable to the top kids at a “tier 1 school”.
To test my theory I looked at UVA vs 'Bama. UVA admitted roughly 3700 kids last year. Its 25th-75th percentile for ACT scores was 29-34. If you assume the 50th percentile is exactly halfway between the 2 data points you get 1/2 the class has 31.5 or above. That means approximately 1850 kids were in that group.
'Bama admitted 9400 freshmen. Its 25th percentile is a 31 ACT. If you take 1/4 of the 9400 you get 2350 kids with a 31 or more.
I think it is pretty clear that 'Bama has as many (or more) smart kids attending school as does UVA (or probably most top schools). ROLL TIDE!!!
@Gator88NE you forgot the “Undergraduates:other first-year, degree seeking” which was 2573. (from the Common Data Set). Your number was just “degree-seeking, first-time freshman”. I guess ~2600 are either people who are starting as freshman after having dropped out or, more likely, maybe transfers??
There was a poster who had done a thorough analysis with a breakdown of numbers, but I just looked for some of the threads and all of the poster’s posts have been deleted.
Here is some info I did find:
UA’s freshman class’s ACT Scores: 30 - 36: 36% / 24 - 29: 33% / 18 - 23: 31%
With a freshman class of 6824, that means 2456 students scored 30 or greater on the ACT. (That number is bigger than some schools’ entire freshman class.)
Hmmm…Section C and the admission stats is based on the First-time, First-year (Freshman) cohort of students (6,824). It doesn’t reflect the “Other first-year, degree-seeking” students.
I’m pretty sure, “Other first-year” students are mostly transfer students who transfer in with less than 30 semester hours. it may also include “Spring” admits, but I don’t know if UA offer’s Spring enrollment to freshman.
Yes, for example, UGA’s top middle percentile ACT score is 31 too. And UA had a much bigger freshman class, thus a larger number of top students than did UGA last Fall. So UA students have nothing to be ashamed of. However, I don’t see the rep improving greatly from here until UA’s bottom middle percentile score is higher than 22. The selectivity of a school seems more important to many than how many top students enroll. So much for desire for diversity eh?
@atlanta68, I don’t think most schools superscore, at least that was our experience. I think it should be the same at all schools to make a fair comparison.
