CWRU Class of 2022 application - reflection

If CW is being over-enrolled this year, it is going to have some interesting impact down the road. For instance, the most immediate impact will be the acceptance rate for class of 2023. I don’t think too many will take the gap year option, but with the possible “unexpected” higher yield, CW would be even more conservative in acceptance next year. In the 2012-13 cycle, CW only gave 30 acceptances from the WL, and that year had an acceptance rate of 54%. The following year, the acceptance rate for CW went down to 39%, with many more students put on the WL.

I wonder, is the higher yield due to #1) the rise in competitive nature out there, #2) increase affordability to attend CW, #3) better/newer facilities vs other schools, and #4) finally being recognized as a great place for STEM studies.

During the school search process, I have to admit CW was not at the top of our list. S was interested in biophysics, bios/premed type and he applied to state flagship, which has a decent program and a bunch of other schools that he and his friends were interested. CW was among the top picks with his friends, and we were a bit leery about Cleveland. We knew the reputation of CW reputation the health sciences area is top notch. Since CW did not require a special essay in the application, so we just hit submit for the EA round. Little did we know CW gave us an excellent merit package, making the CoA being the lowest. We didn’t apply FA for the schools we submit, and many didn’t give us any which I don’t fault them at all as many of them just don’t give out merit package. Eventually S got in UMich and JHU (still shock) and these two were the final choices along with CW.

We visited CW in April. We really liked what we saw. University Circle is amazing, the restaurants, the shops, the museums. CW is not a suburban school, but it is not urban-urban like NYU either. Since my S’s intend major is biomed/biophysics area, so we spend a lot of time to investigate the availability of UG research (which is absolutely important in our minds- considering top grad/med schools will look at those favorably in the application), we like what we learned. The people on campus were very nice, a bit nerdy, but perfectly “mid-western” nice. We liked that. We came home after the trip wanting to commit. We put that decision on hold till we have the JH trip the following week.

Side by side comparison, there is no doubt JH has a higher overall ranking and has very top medical school in the country. My concern is the competitive nature of the student body there, esp. in premed. S didn’t select the BME major as he was uncertain that’s for sure for him, so he put down the generic biology and physics instead. We liked JH a lot, the size, the facility, the availability of UG research, the reputation etc., it checked all the boxes. To me, silly as it may seem to others, CW and JH are very close in quality with biomedical offerings for UG. In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with either schools if you want to do premed or have an excellent foundation for grad school in the life sciences area.

S and I just love CW all the way to the final minute. When we let our son to decide alone, he picked JH, not because of any academic offerings but rather our eldest daughter is attending JH now, so he didn’t want to be in Cleveland alone. The JH package we got is nowhere like the one from CW. So CoA will be significantly higher. But I have to honor our S’s choice at the end.

I hope this reflection help some students to decide about the schools next year. For Class of 2023, please spend the summer to look around, and if you are outside of Ohio, worth a visit to CW. Apply EARLY, and if this is absolutely for you, go for ED. If history were to repeat itself, I’d bet the acceptance rate for CW will plummet next year. With no essays required, CW would be looking for something - some hook -they want to take you. There is a small PS line in our Son’s acceptance letter - a personal message that crystallized the character/quality of the candidate. So think of your application file, if someone read it, what would they summarize it in a short sentence. It is not about scores, GPA, and it invariably concerns with something else you did - let that be an EC activity - you start a biz, you start a foundation, your trip to whatever places/and reflections of those etc etc. In my S case - it was about his painful recovery of a serious sports injury during the 9th grade and he carried through such challenge. So make sure you have that focus when apply to CW. Otherwise, best of luck. There is no certainty anywhere, college applications included.


[QUOTE=""]
I wonder, is the higher yield due to #1) the rise in competitive nature out there, #2) increase affordability to attend CW, #3) better/newer facilities vs other schools, and #4) finally being recognized as a great place for STEM studies.<<

[/QUOTE]

5) Case continuing to fine tune their admissions algorithm to increase yield.

You do see a trend over the last few years of smaller percentages being accepted from the WL. Case has a “Big Data” program and if there ever was an application for big data admission yield would be a good fit. Perfect project for a UG or Graduate research project.

My child was accepted. ~30s ACT (although mid 30s in science and math), ~3.8s UW GPA, and modest EC’s. Probably a good essay but nothing super special. One campus visit, no interview, no LOCI, not an athlete, not a favorable demographic, not much need based FA required.

I can only assume he was in the acceptance pool partly based on his probability of accepting an admissions offer.

@ny2ohio CW is quite popular in my S’s HS and we are not within driving distance from Cleveland. I suppose that matters as well. Not only the geographic diversity but also the history of the accepted kids from the same HS do actually end up in CW, despite the distance. CW sent us a lot of email during the time of application and after, and I am sure they have a way to check if you open, read those emails and did you click on the links of what’s happening at CW etc etc. Thus, they probably can gauge the interest level to attend. I know for a fact that a couple of schools our kid got in, we didn’t even bother to register the admitted student day or open the school emails after the acceptance. Clearly, those schools were not at the top of our final list. In the age of big data, institutions know and that obviously will feed into the increasing yield situation.

That being said, I have no idea what pool our kiddo was in, but am just glad everything worked out.