Based on US Dept. of Education data (IPEDS) from 2015-16
Ranking might be underestimated for tech-heavy schools. They tend to have somewhat lower grad rates because of demanding curriculum, I think.
grad rate, SAT CR 25th, SAT CR 75th, SAT Math 25th, SAT Math 75th, ACT 25th, ACT 75th, State
98 700 800 700 800 32 35 MA Harvard University
97 720 800 710 800 31 35 CT Yale University
97 690 790 700 800 32 35 NJ Princeton University
97 670 760 680 770 32 34 IN University of Notre Dame
96 680 780 690 780 31 34 RI Brown University
96 670 780 660 770 31 34 MA Williams College
95 680 760 700 790 31 34 PA University of Pennsylvania
95 690 780 690 790 31 35 NY Columbia University in the City of New York
95 670 760 690 790 31 34 NC Duke University
95 680 773 680 780 31 34 MA Amherst College
95 660 750 660 770 29 33 MN Carleton College
94 690 780 700 800 31 35 CA Stanford University
94 670 750 690 780 32 34 MD Johns Hopkins University
94 670 760 690 770 30 34 CA Pomona College
94 660 780 670 780 30 34 NH Dartmouth College
94 670 760 670 770 30 34 PA Swarthmore College
94 660 750 660 750 30 34 DC Georgetown University
94 630 750 640 750 29 33 VT Middlebury College
94 630 720 640 740 29 32 ME Colby College
93 690 760 710 800 31 34 IL Northwestern University
93 690 760 710 790 32 34 MO Washington University in St Louis
93 680 750 690 770 30 33 MA Tufts University
93 650 750 680 780 30 34 NY Cornell University
93 640 740 650 750 27 33 MA Wellesley College
93 620 720 630 740 29 33 VA University of Virginia-Main Campus
93 630 720 630 720 29 32 NC Davidson College
92 680 780 750 800 33 35 MA Massachusetts Institute of Technology
92 670 760 730 800 32 35 CA Harvey Mudd College
92 720 800 720 800 32 35 IL University of Chicago
92 710 790 720 800 32 35 TN Vanderbilt University
92 670 750 670 780 29 33 CA Claremont McKenna College
92 620 730 650 770 30 33 CA University of Southern California
92 610 740 640 770 30 34 CA University of California-Berkeley
92 620 720 640 750 30 33 MA Boston College
92 650 730 630 718 29 32 CA Scripps College
91 730 800 770 800 34 35 CA California Institute of Technology
91 680 760 710 800 32 35 TX Rice University
91 670 750 660 740 30 33 NY Vassar College
91 650 730 660 740 30 33 VA Washington and Lee University
91 580 710 600 760 28 33 CA University of California-Los Angeles
91 640 730 620 720 29 32 NY Barnard College
90 660 760 660 770 31 34 PA Haverford College
90 630 730 660 770 29 33 MI University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
90 630 730 630 730 28 32 VA College of William and Mary
90 620 730 620 740 29 32 MN Macalester College
90 620 720 630 730 30 33 NY Colgate University
90 600 710 620 720 28 33 NC University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
90 590 680 620 710 28 32 PA Bucknell University
90 580 670 620 710 27 31 PA Lafayette College
90 590 690 610 710 29 32 PA Villanova University
89 620 720 650 770 29 33 GA Emory University
89 600 710 600 700 27 32 IL Wheaton College
89 540 640 600 690 26 30 MA Bentley University
89 610 730 550 650 28 31 CA Thomas Aquinas College
88 650 740 710 800 31 34 PA Carnegie Mellon University
88 590 680 640 740 29 32 PA Lehigh University
88 600 700 620 720 29 32 VA University of Richmond
88 640 740 620 710 29 32 OH Oberlin College
88 600 690 600 690 28 31 CA Occidental College
88 570 690 560 680 24 29 NY Yeshiva University
87 580 680 640 770 28 33 CA University of California-San Diego
87 630 730 610 690 28 32 OH Kenyon College
87 600 720 600 700 27 32 WA Whitman College
87 560 710 580 700 26 31 MN St Olaf College
87 580 670 590 680 27 31 FL University of Florida
86 640 740 660 770 30 33 IA Grinnell College
86 600 700 650 770 29 32 MA Brandeis University
86 590 690 620 730 00 00 MD University of Maryland-College Park
86 570 680 610 700 00 00 MD United States Naval Academy
86 540 660 570 740 26 31 KY Centre College
86 550 670 560 673 26 30 NY Skidmore College
86 530 630 560 670 25 29 PA Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
85 570 680 700 790 26 31 IL University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
85 630 730 680 770 30 33 GA Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus
85 560 660 630 750 27 31 WI University of Wisconsin-Madison
85 620 730 620 730 28 32 PA Bryn Mawr College
85 580 680 620 730 27 31 MA Boston University
85 570 660 610 690 26 31 CT United States Coast Guard Academy
85 510 630 560 710 25 31 CA University of California-Davis
85 550 640 570 670 26 30 NJ The College of New Jersey
85 536 655 540 654 24 29 PA Grove City College
84 660 740 680 770 31 34 MA Northeastern University
84 620 720 630 750 29 32 NY New York University
84 590 690 620 710 27 32 CA Santa Clara University
84 540 660 580 710 26 31 WA University of Washington-Seattle Campus
84 570 660 580 670 26 30 GA University of Georgia
84 550 650 550 670 25 30 CA Pepperdine University
83 540 640 640 730 25 30 IL Illinois Wesleyan University
83 560 670 610 720 27 31 OH Ohio State University-Main Campus
83 620 710 620 700 29 32 LA Tulane University of Louisiana
83 580 680 610 710 26 31 NY United States Military Academy
83 590 690 600 700 27 31 DC George Washington University
83 550 650 580 690 26 31 CT University of Connecticut
83 600 700 580 680 27 32 TN Rhodes College
83 580 690 580 680 27 32 TX Trinity University
83 540 640 560 680 00 00 VA Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
83 550 640 560 650 25 29 NC Elon University
83 540 640 550 650 25 29 WA Gonzaga University
83 520 610 520 610 23 27 VA James Madison University
82 590 680 650 745 29 32 NJ Stevens Institute of Technology
The ranking is based on grad rate and then SAT. SAT optional schools don’t have valid SAT data so they are excluded. I forgot to mention that. I’ll look for the missing schools that were mentioned and see where they might fit in based on grad rate alone.
SAT/ACT scores alone are not reliable in determining reach/match/safety, because many schools use many other criteria. In addition, many schools have different admission buckets of different selectivity (e.g. by major or division, or in-state versus out-of-state for state universities).
By what definition? Middlebury and Colby (both included) require neither the SAT 1 nor the ACT. GWU (also included) appears to have been entirely test optional since 2015.
Though not consistently. For example, UChicago’s scores list as higher than HMC’s. And have you included and properly weighted the ACT in your ordering?
Someone named “CollegeHelp” goes to a government database, pulls some attributes, pops them on this site and folks argue about the validity. The inclusion and sort are individually selected. The list means nothing.
If you look at Collegehelps" other threads, he/she must get bored and run these lists every so often.
While agreeing with @EyeVeee , I’ll point out anyway that grad rate seems like a meaningless factor when it comes to figuring out reach, match and safety. Grades, scores and acceptance rates seem to be the quantifiable factors most useful and figuring out how likely a student is to be accepted.
Here are the grad rates for some of the schools mentioned. You can plug them into the list where they would fit.
93 Bowdoin
92 Hamilton
88 Bates
87 Smith
83 Mt. Holyoke
Grad rates are highly correlated with SAT scores (about +.75) so they are a good proxy for many indicators of quality (although, as I said, tech-heavy schools tend to have slightly lower grad rates). By using grad rates, I was able to fit the SAT optional schools into this ranking.
I did not factor in ACT scores although I included the information. ACT scores are not as predictive of grad rates as SAT scores.
Middlebury, Colby, and GWU may be SAT optional now. I don’t know. But, in 2015-16 these schools did submit SAT scores to the US Department of Education according to the USDE guidelines. Maybe they wen SAT optional in the last year or two.
SAT percentiles are an important factor to consider in determining reach, match, safety.
Alexandre, the SAT/ACT ranges are those submitted to the US Department of Education according to the definitions and methods defined by the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System. Schools are supposed to adhere to these definitions (e.g…first-time, full-time, freshmen in the fall). These are their official numbers. If schools report different figures elsewhere, it is probably because the school is using different definitions. I hope the school is not reporting different figures to cast themselves in a better light and deceive the public. Are they much different from what you have seen elsewhere?
Another possibility is that the figures are based on a different freshman class.
If you used 4y graduation rates instead of 6y, you’d get rather different results.
For example, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, UChicago, and WUSTL all have the same 4y rates (86%, according to Kiplinger’s). Not that 4 year rates are more appropriate than 6 year. I wouldn’t think either one tells you more than the other about admission selectivity.
US News measures admission selectivity from admission rates (10%), HS class standing in T10% (25%), and test scores (65%). By that method, according to data I’ve gathered, the 10 most selective colleges would include (in alphabetical order): Cal Tech, Harvard, Harvey Mudd, MIT, Pomona, Princeton, Stanford, UChicago, Vanderbilt, WashU, and Yale. Notre Dame would rank about 22nd. This strikes me as more plausible than the order above.
I mean, does anyone really believe Colby College is more selective than MIT, Harvey Mudd, and UChicago?
Colby gets a boost in the rankings because it is an “overperformer” in the US News sense. Its grad rate exceeds what you’d expect based on selectivity alone. Overperformance may mean that Colby is doing an exceptionally good job with the students that they attract… The ranking is not based on selectivity alone. On the other hand, schools like MIT, Caltech, and Harvey Mudd get “dinged” because their grad rates are lower than you would expect based on selectivity alone.
I am not sure it is right to penalize the tech-heavy schools for lower-than-expected grad rates. On the one hand, it is a shame that talented students don’t graduate. On the other hand, tech subjects are very demanding and maybe these schools should be excused for lower-than-expected grad rates. Furthermore, it may be possible that freshmen majoring in STEM subjects are more likely to change their interests once they get a taste of the subject matter. I’m torn about how the tech schools should be treated.
The ranking is based on both an input measure (selectivity) and an output measure (grad rate). What does it mean to say that a school is a “reach”. Is “reach” defined only by selectivity? There are other factors that are indicative of achievement besides SAT scores but they are hard to quantify. Perhaps SAT scores are correlated with other measures of achievement and ability so they can serve as a proxy.
Does the term “reach” also connote an element of desirability as well as selectivity? If schools with higher grad rates are more desirable (other things being about equal), then I believe I am justified in basing the ranking partly on grad rate.
Alexandre, why would the CDS data differ from the data that schools submit to the US Dept. of Ed? I would think schools would want to be consistent. Do the CDS SAT ranges tend to be higher that IPEDS? If so, I would wonder whether the motive is marketing.
I don’t think it is deliberate collegehelp. There are just way too many numbers to account for. As such, inconsistencies are bound to surface. For example, UCLA reported an ACT range of 28-33 to the US Department of Education, while the ACT range on the CDS was 25-33. The difference is insignificant, but such lapses will occur.
Maybe so, due to the “graduation rate performance” factor (which US News weighs at 7.5% of the total score.) However, what you’re using as your primary sorting factor is the straight 6y graduation rate. At least, that’s what the table in the original post shows.
At any rate, I don’t see why you’d want to use 6 year rates, 4 year rates, or graduation rate performance to sort reach/match/safety schools.
No, I don’t think so.
Harvard is a “reach” for virtually anyone, even if you hate the place but apply just to see if you get in.
If a tip-top student decides he wants to attend the local CC to stay close to his girlfriend, that doesn’t make it a reach.
Ideally, every college on an application list should be desirable in one way or another. What distinguishes r/m/s is the selectivity. Although, it usually doesn’t make sense to apply to a highly selective college if you’d prefer to attend a much less selective one.
Colby’s graduation rate (94%) appears notable in USNWR in that it exceeds their first-year student retention rate (93%). (However, the publication considers different years for the bases of these figures.)