We always read about colleges where acceptance rate are going lower, is there a list showing colleges where acceptance rates are going up?
That happens sometimes in years when a college has bad news that impacts the number of apps in a negative direction.
BusinessStudent.com and Priceonomics did a study of the top 51 colleges from US News in 2006, and found 2 whose admission rates were higher in 2018 than in 2006. The two schools were Syracuse and the College of William and Mary. Here is a link to the study:
https://priceonomics.com/analyzing-the-grim-reality-of-college-acceptance/
You can find this on IPEDS. Among all 4 year not-for-profit colleges in the US, the average over the past decade was a 2% increase in acceptance rate. However, most on this site focus on selective colleges. Most selective colleges have a different trend than the overall average. Among somewhat selective colleges, the acceptance rate has an increasing trend over the past decade at only approximately 1/3 of them. Some of these include:
Denison – Median of past 3 years: 44% acceptance rate, 10 years ago: 39% acceptance rate
Boston College – Median of past 3 years: 31% acceptance rate, 10 years ago: 27% acceptance rate
William and Mary – Median of past 3 years: 36% acceptance rate, 10 years ago: 34% acceptance rate
Note that none of the above are extremely selective. Among extremely selective colleges with a <20% acceptance rate and high test scores, all had a decrease. Some of the ones with the smallest change in acceptance rate are:
Williams – Median of past 3 years: 15% acceptance rate, 10 years ago: 19% acceptance rate
USAFA – Median of past 3 years: 14% acceptance rate, 10 years ago: 18% acceptance rate
WUSTL – Median of past 3 years: 16% acceptance rate, 10 years ago: 21% acceptance rate
At the other end, some of the highly selective colleges with the largest decrease in acceptance rate are::
Chicago – Median of past 3 years: 8% acceptance rate, 10 years ago: 38% acceptance rate
Northwestern – Median of past 3 years: 9% acceptance rate, 10 years ago: 30% acceptance rate
Vanderbilt – Median of past 3 years: 10% acceptance rate, 10 years ago: 33% acceptance rate
IPEDs is reporting for the current juniors in college, so lags current admissions trends by several years. Families can search for press releases from the spring to see the most recent data, before Common Data Sets etc. are updated. Some schools are changing fairly quickly so data from even three years ago may not accurately represent the current environment.
For instance, Denison’s acceptance rate has been dropping, from 44% for 'class of 20 (most recent reported in IPEDs), to about 38% for class of '21 and '34% for class of '22. Applications have increased to over 8000 this year, from as best I recall, around 6000 several years ago. Kenyon’s has done the reverse, with I think about 26% for class of '20, 28-30% for class of '21 and 34% for class of '22. Another example would be Grinnell, which both my kids looked at – for my older son’s admissions process (college class of '16), Grinnell may have been close to 50% when we started researching, was in the low 40%s by the time he applied, and by the time his younger sibling was looking for class of '20, it was 20%.
I’m not interested in schools with a trend for acceptance rate going down but ones exhibiting trend of acceptance rate going up.What’s the common reason behind increased acceptance rate? Did any popular one show dramatic increase?
@CupCakeMuffins Unpopular schools get a decrease in applications so they need to increase acceptance rate to fill the class.
Kenyon’s acceptance rate has increased over the past 3-4 years, and is 34% presently. Oberlin’s rate was over 35% last year, a higher acceptance rate than the mid-20% range from prior years.
Schools in expansion mode will have an increasing acceptance rate as well, as new facilities make room for more students
I would like to see an analysis involving relative affordability versus change in acceptance rate. As college gets more expensive, schools that offer great financial aid may be getting more applications. Conversely, schools that don’t offer strong financial aid may be seeing a decrease in applications. For need based aid, the percentage of need met is useful to consider. For those seeking merit instead of need based aid, an analogous metric may be the amount of merit aid offered.
When we were developing a college list for D18, the first thing we did was run the NPC. If the school wasn’t affordable it dropped off the list.
Sometimes various changes in admission policies affect the app numbers and accordingly the acceptance rates. For example, in the case of BC above, if I recall, a few years ago the school added back in an app supplement that led to a decrease in apps and increase in acceptance rate. For class of 2022, the overall acceptance rate is back down to 27%. (The IPEDS lag: currently, IPEDS only goes through class of 2021 and won’t be updated for 2022 until next May or June.)
Some schools see decreases in acceptance rates after adding ED. Villanova is a prime example - 2020 rate was around 43%, dropped ino the 30s for 2021, and after adding ED for the class of 2022, the rate dropped again to 29%.
And if you only look at the past few years like this instead of using long term trends with the average ot median of several years, you don’t see how large the year-to-year variance in acceptance rate is for the small LACs you’ve emphasized. Continuing with the Kenyon example, historical acceptance rates for Kenyon are below, Looking at the longer historical trend like this and seeing the toggle back and forth between increasing and decreasing acceptance rate each couple years, I think few would predict a notable increase in acceptance rate for next year’s class. Instead many would predict a notable decrease that brings the acceptance rate closer to the long term trend line. Rates for 2011-19 are IPEDS. 2021 is CDS. Press releases and other sources may differ by 1-2%.
Class of 2011 – 29%
Class of 2013 – 39%
Class of 2015 – 33%
Class of 2017 – 38%
Class of 2019 – 26%
Class of 2021 – 34%
While there has been a decrease in acceptance rate trend at Grinell, particularly in recent years, again the bulk of the variation was year-to-year variance, at a smaller college. Specific numbers from the period in which your son reviewed the college and applied are below.
Class of 2011 – 45%
Class of 2013 – 34%
Class of 2015 – 45%
Class of 2017 – 35%
It depends how you define popular. If “popular” includes public colleges that many thousands of students apply to and attend, then some examples are below. If you instead by popular you mean HYPSM… type highly selective private colleges, then the answer is no.
Alabama A&M – Acceptance rate increased from 30-40%s a decade ago to 90% in 2017
SUNY Geneseo – Acceptance rate increased from 30%s a decade ago to 72% in most recent CDS
Morgan State – Acceptance rate increased from 30%s a decade ago to 60%s today
The net price calculator result is better for an estimate of one’s individual financial aid situation with respect to that college than any claims of meeting need, which depend on how the college defines need.
Regarding Kenyon’s acceptance rate, this represents just one aspect of selectivity. By the standardized scoring profiles of its students, Kenyon appears to have maintained or increased its selectivity over the last few years:
Graduating Class | Middle Range
ACT
2018: 28-32
2019: 28-32
2020: 29-33
2021: 29-33
2022: 29-33
SAT*
2018: 1850-2140
2019: 1860-2140
2020: 1860-2170
2021: 1263-1460
2022: 1280-1470
- Scores reflect an intermediate format change