<p>I'm applying to these colleges. Could anyone rank them in terms of selectivity? I'm trying to figure out where they all lie...</p>
<p>Smith College
Mount Holyoke College
Bryn Mawr
Colgate University
Boston College (Honors Program - I'm really hoping to be admitted!)
Boston University (Kilachand Honors College)
NYU (Arts and Sciences)
Bard College</p>
<p>Thanks to anyone who responds!!!</p>
<p>Selectivity for what? Each of these schools has strength in programs. </p>
<p>What is it that you really want to know?</p>
<p>I’k like someone to rank them in terms of undergraduate admission selectivity, in general. </p>
<p>If by “selectivity” you mean admit rate, then that only tells a partial story since it’s accepted kids divided by # applications.</p>
<p>What you need to do is to google the schools’ Common Data Sets and see how YOU compare. And why are you relying on strangers? Surely if you’re a viable candidate for one of these schools, you have the analytical ability to start pulling out real information for yourself, right?</p>
<p>I’m not trying to be a jerk – but do you REALLY want a 15 year old’s opinion if Holyoke is more selective than Smith?</p>
<p>You can easily look up the admittance rates on google, but what is more important is the caliber of the students admitted. For instance, the average GPA/SAT score ect. That should give you a good indicator. A program that has helped in the past is if your school uses Naviance, you can compare your student to students that were accepted to the school in the past so you have a good comparison</p>
<p>I agree that Naviance is a great place to get a read on the student’s cohort. If, for example, 20 of its students apply to UCLA and 15 are accepted, then this is obviously an astonishing acceptance rate, but what Naviance reveals is the SAT/ACT scores and GPAs of those students accepted or rejected. While test scores and GPAs are not the sole admission factors for university admission, the student will still gain insight into who among his classmates is accepted. I also agree that acceptance rates in general are readily available, but then those are in the aggregate, not disaggregated by major. Some majors have much lower acceptance rates since the programs may be more of the boutique sort. (For example, Chapman University’s general admissions acceptance is far higher than Dodge College acceptances.)</p>
<p>You have gotten good advice from people above. We made spreadsheets which used the College Board website’s admission rates and the SAT scores to help us figure out where D’s stats fit with her list of schools (which included three of your list.) However, I’ll tell you that you really can’t bank on those numbers at all. My D’s admit results did not necessarily fall in line with what the numbers predicted. (I’ll also add re: Bard- I think you will have a MUCH better chance getting in if you apply through their IDP -Immediate Decision Plan- program. It’s admit rate is MUCH higher than regular admission, plsu, it’s really fun!)</p>
<p>To be honest, it can be tricky to tell For example, Mount Holyoke is test optional. Which makes it hard to compare to colleges that are not. They do have test score ranges, but you could also assume that only students with higher scores submitted them. I know about some of these colleges, but not all, so can’t really rank them for you. That is probably true of most posters out here (maybe someone from the Northeast could give it a shot, though).</p>
<p>But I am not sure why you should care. What matters is what YOUR chances of admission are. Give us your stats, geographic location, financial situation, and major preference, and you can get some opinions on whether each college is a reach, match, or safety. That should be all that matters.</p>
<p>I’d research it using readily available tools like Naviance, websites of the various colleges, and college guide books (Fiske, Barrons, Princeton Review). You should be able to get a very strong sense of “where they all lie” that way.</p>
<p>I relied too heavily on Naviance and decided it is misleading, since acceptance rates have decreased over a pretty short time window the past few years for the more selective schools. Moreover, I know it has mistakes. My older son did much better on his ACT than SAT and only submitted ACT scores to colleges, yet he got plotted with the SAT, which means for the schools he got into, the chances look better for a student with a score like his (2070, I think). I would instead look up the acceptance rates that the New York Times publishes every year for a reality check.</p>
<p>It’s hard to compare apples and oranges, i.e, coed schools vs. women’s colleges. Women’s college are somewhat self-selective, in that firstly, half the population cannot even apply, and as far as the other half, many of them have no interest in a women’s college. MHC, for example, has a relatively high acceptance rate, but that’s because if you’re not a fit, you probably won’t bother applying. </p>
<p>Wellesley is harder to get into than Smith, and Smith is about the same as MHC (Smith may be more selective, but is a little bigger, therefore has a few more slots available). Bryn Mawr has only 1700 undergrads, MHC has 2200, and Smith 3000. </p>
<p>Compare women’s schools to each other, and compare the coed schools to each other similarly.</p>