<p>Question: Are the admission statistics noted in the college guidebooks really accurate, or do they sometimes elevate the numbers so that schools appear more selective than they really are? The statistics will get you in the ballpark, but there are a couple considerations that may make colleges appear at least a tad more selective than they [...]</p>
<p>I've thought for a long time that college admissions data needs to be independently audited. Maybe law school salary data as well.</p>
<p>The highlighted article in the original post in this thread said a lot of nothing, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Interesting question - particularly because I suspect one school on my list does just that. It's hard to find information about Mass Maritime's admissions, but when you do, it's very conflicting. The SAT and GPA range remains steady, but 50% of sources claim its admissions percentage is 33% to 37%; the other 50% claims its admissions rate is 65% to 67%.</p>
<p>Veeery interesting.</p>
<p>Very interesting article. No doubt there is a lot of admission stat manipulation going on, especially at lower tier schools seeking to move up in the rankings. Thank you for the post.</p>
<p>I doubt the colleges would outright lie but there are ways to manipulate
the stats. For example mean SAT scores sometimes look real good, until you
see that only 60% submitted them. That suggests many students actually
score lower.</p>
<p>The finaid stats are often for the graduating class. Total debt might be
20 grand for that class, but might be projected at 25 or higher for the
incoming class. The level of packages was set four years before, so
that is often an inaccurate stat</p>
<p>for the state schools, I wish there was a way to get in-state vs out-of-state admission stats breakdown since generally admissions for the latter is more selective, much more so for the highly ranked institutions. Any info or ideas on this?</p>
<p>Manipulation of statistics is well-known. For example, a school can use only admitted- or matriculated-student scores instead of accepted-student scores. One school is now in the news for paying new students to take the SAT another time - after admission - to attempt to raise scores further!</p>
<p>Test numbers in guide books may not be current. In fact, unless the book in question is updated annually, they can be a couple years out of date. As we're now in the demographic Big Crunch, scores for the current class of 2012 at many schools are significantly higher than for previous years. College websites often post a profile for the class of 2012, or, failing that, the class of 2011. That's your best source for test numbers.</p>
<p>I always find conflicting data on class rank, which is something I'm concerned about because I'm currently missing the top 10% of my class by a few spots. On collegeboard it said that for villanova only 50% of the students who were admitted were in the top 10%, but on villanova's site it said something like 75%. Is the the collegeboard correct and the school is manipulating the stats?</p>
<p>Its all sort of silly. Schools chasing prestige as much as the students are, which feeds the neurotic types in neighborhoods and schools and churches. We have gotten away from the central mission of every college, which is to educate students and prepare them for adult life, helping them grow as individuals with an appreciation for being productive in society and serving society at large, none of which has anything to do with SAT scores.</p>
<p>More troubling is the economic malaise we are suffering and how this will impact the admissions process, making once safe state schools more elitist. The silver lining on that cloud is that a lot of very bright students will opt for second tier schools and find out that the quality of education there is really not any different from a lot of the name schools. The only difference is attitude.</p>
<p>i've thought that before. in fact, i wouldn't be surprised if college websites did that too...</p>