Do you think most applicants are actually qualified?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I'm talking about top schools, but what im asking is if you think the bulk of the people that apply to let's say, Duke, actually meet the academic standards of the school? For example my sis applied to Duke about 5 years ago on a whim. she didnt have the stats to get in (1850 sat and 3.5 gpa) and nothing spectacular about her ECs either. She didnt get in. So when top schools have such small acceptance rates is it more likely that tons of extremely qualified candidates are being rejected, or are there a good amount of unqualified people just applying on a whim?</p>

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<p>In the case of Washington U at STL, they invite pretty much anyone to apply by way of the school’s mass-mailings, so I’d say it depends on the school’s marketing strategy.</p>

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<p>I would guess that the vast majority of the applicants to top schools are qualified. You can probably search websites to get that information.</p>

<p>Here’s Harvard’s, for example:
Harvard University: Acceptance Rate, SAT/ACT Scores, GPA</p>

<p>And Duke’s:
<a href=“Duke University: Acceptance Rate, SAT/ACT Scores”>http://collegeapps.about.com/od/GPA-SAT-ACT-Graphs/ss/duke-admission-gpa-sat-act.htm&lt;/a&gt;
Note that there are VERY FEW applicants with a GPA less than 3.5</p>

<p>Were you hoping that your odds of being accepted are greater than the published acceptance rate, since you have good grades/scores? At highly selective schools, that is not the case.</p>