@tk21769 I like the way you’ve tried to put something of a quantitative methodology around the issue. I don’t think my question was rooted in anything specific, just more of a gut feeling that certain schools are emphasizing certain “selectivity metrics” more than others, most likely in an attempt to check the boxes that US News weights most heavily.
For example, another poster noted the weights that US News puts on standardized test scores and admissions selectivity, and Vanderbilt immediately jumped to mind given its high mid-50% test scores and the lowish 11-12% admit rate in recent years. Georgia Tech just announced that it accepted only 26% of its early action applicants, with a mid-50% ACT of 32-35. That mid-50% range is right up there with Vandy and some of the Ivies, and Georgia Tech was a school that up until recent years probably accepted close to 50% of its applicants.
UC’s look ridiculously competitive on admissions rate, and % of students in top-10% of their HS class, but then the UC average mid-50% scores are not so high, perhaps reflecting the diversity of the applicant pool that these large public California universities attract.
I was just trying to get a sense for general consensus about which schools value the quantifiable admissions metrics most, but again, nothing hard and fast in the way I’ve approached the question.