i was wondering, do colleges, like top tier schools, lie about their acceptance rates to make themselves look good?
Colleges do try to make their number look good. They court applicants so their acceptance rate goes down, they may use ED plans to boost yield, and some go after scores to look better in rankings. Data is largely self reported, so there is opportunity for deceit. Yrs ago Forbes kicked a few off their list for cheating with the data. Think it was Emory, Bucknell, Claremont McKenna and and a few others.
“Lies, damned lies, and statistics”
I think it was Geo Washington Uni (plz correct if I’m wrong) who felt the need to bolster their apparent selectivity by including in their “applications” numbers of started but incomplete apps – thus driving down their admit rate.
But how widespread is this? Who knows. But it’s a two way street – the public hungers over these trivial details which in its mind, equates to quality – and less ethical colleges buy into it as well.
Here’s how to inoculate yourself. Ignore the rankings. Simple, eh?
The whole admissions game is rife with credentials inflation all around-- by colleges, by the students, by the high schools, by the College Board.
GPAs are ridiculously inflated nowadays. And where’s the intellectual honesty in SAT superscoring? It’s akin to photoshopping different photos of yourself, where on one day you’ve got a good hair day, on another you’ve got a good smile, and on yet another you’ve actually got your eyes open.
The whole game is like ‘vanity sizing’ of designer clothes. Everyone (colleges & students alike) wears a “sleeker size” now, no matter how much of a toad they are.
What it really points to is that noise in the rankings outweighs the precise rank of any school. Rather than looking at which one is 2 vs. 3 or 12 vs 15, it makes more sense to talk about ‘top tier (arbitrary cut-off)’ vs. ‘next tier (arbitrary cut-off.)’
And frankly, the fit for you personally, outweighs even the tiers. Who cares if it’s a ‘top tier’ school overall if 1) you can’t afford it 2) it doesn’t feel right for you and/or 3) doesn’t offer a strong coursework in whatever you want to study. These factors are so much more important than a school’s rank. And ranking a school ‘highly selective’ or ‘Ivy’ is not a short-cut way of saying ‘yes’ to all of the above. You actually do have to look at each school and decide if it’s really where you want to be.