<p>The acceptance rate is the second number from the end. The last number is the yield which is the percent of those accepted who choose to enroll.</p>
<p>Why don't you calculate the correlation.</p>
<p>The correlation between the acceptance percent and the SAT 75th percentile is -.73. This means there is a very strong relationship and that the relationship is inverse; as SAts go up, accept rate goes down. It also means there would be a narrow oval scatter plot.</p>
<p>For LACs the scatter plot would be rounder (the relationship weaker) but not as round as the scatter plot for publics.</p>
<p>yeah, a lower acceptance rate doesn't necessarily mean a more prestigious school or vice versa. For example, UChicago has a relatively high acceptance rate but it's still a very prestigious school. I think it's because the ppl who apply to UChicago really want to go there and who will spend time on their weird essays and such. </p>
<p>And I think some people apply to Harvard for the sake it's harvard. My friend is applying to Harvard and Madison. She's very smart and all (national merit, 2200 SATs, etc) and was planning on madison, but she just applied to harvard just to see if she could get in and for bragging rights. And the same with ivies, some apply just for the "ivy league" title. And maybe some apply to Duke just for the basketball. I don't know, but i think too many people assume automatically that one college is more selective just b/c the acceptance rate is lower than another one.</p>
<p>^^ Yea, my friend who is not even close to ivy league applied to Yale...don't understand that really. She said she doesn't even care about what they say. It was probably so if the small chance she did get in (who knows, she may based on the odd selection process), she would be able to brag about it. Annoys me a lot!</p>
<p>Here's the chart with only privates. It is not that much different from the chart that includes publics.</p>
<p><a href="http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2ki3.png%5B/url%5D">http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2ki3.png</a> (Privates)</p>
<p><a href="http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=yeaqw5.png%5B/url%5D">http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=yeaqw5.png</a> (Privates / Publics)</p>
<p>you don't even need to look at the hard numbers to see there is a clear correlation between lower acceptance rates and higher SAT numbers (something i've long argued) - i.e. just by looking at the graph you can clearly draw a downward sloping line (roughly from the upper left corner to lower right corner).</p>
<p>of course there will be outliers and the odd case here and there (e.g. UChicago) but for the most part, this data clearly shows a strong relationship b/n acceptance rates and SAT numbers... was it KK that was arguing against this in an older thread? wonder what he has to say about this data...</p>
<p>The real question is whether SAT scores are an acurate meter of "applicant strength."</p>
<p>I'd say they are. They're the best numeric indicator. Much better than GPA.</p>
<p>It doesn't look like much correlation. Do you have the r^2 value of the graph?</p>
<p>I downloaded data on hundreds of (1) private research universities (2) private LACs and (3) public universities. I calculated the correlation for each group between accept rate and SAT total 75th percentile.</p>
<p>The relationship is inverse in each case: as SATs go up, accept rate goes down.</p>
<p>(1) For private research universities the correlation was very high (-.73) which suggests a narrow oval scatter plot
(2) For private LACs the correlation was moderate (-.49) which suggests a wide oval scatter plot
(3) For public universities the correlation was low (-.30) which suggests a rounded scatter plot.</p>
<p>The R squared's would be the correlations squared.</p>
<p>Some schools have limited appeal, such as those aligned with a religion, like BYU and Yeshiva. Consequently they have high acceptance rates AND high yield rates. i.e., not that many people apply, but those who do REALLY want to go there. The yield rates at these two schools are higher than Yale, Princeton, and Stanford.</p>
<p>BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY 660 670 8696 6794 5335 1330 78% 79%
YESHIVA UNIVERSITY 660 680 1875 1467 1005 1340 78% 69%</p>
<p>pshh...Bob Jones is 83% yield...beat Harvard!!!</p>