Does an abundance of sports lead to lower selectivity?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>The toughest schools to get into (according to PRs 2005 ranking) in order are:</p>

<li>MIT</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
</ol>

2

<p>That list has very little to do with "selectivity", as you know.</p>

3

<p>What do you mean, Byerly?</p>

4

<p>The silly PR lists are primarily based on non-scientific "surveys" of small numbers of students at various colleges, who "rate" only their own school (good library? lots of beer?, do kids study hard?), and who don't (can't) compare it with other schools.</p>

<p>Pr does say it considers some statistical data as well for a few of the lists - such as "toughest to get into" - but the "formula" is very vague and the weightings of factors are unstated.</p>

<p>Contrast this with USNews, which - although you can quarrel with some of their markers, especially to rate "selectivity" - at least discloses how their rankings are determined.</p>

5

<p>Princeton is NOT more selective than Harvard and Yale. Princeton accepted 29% of its ED class, and the SAT average is much lower than Yale's...</p>

6

<p>Its "yield" and the stats of matriculants that count for "selectivity" ratings - or should.</p>

<p>Its not who you invited to the party, but what fraction of the invitees actually show up, and who those people were, that tells us whether the party was "selective" or not.</p>

7

<p>The Atlantic Monthly and PR selectivity rankings are in agreement </p>

<hr>

<p>The top schools for each are the same.</p>

<p>Atlantic Monthly top 10 & PR Selectivity top 10</p>

<ol>
<li>MIT </li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>California Institute of Technology</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
</ol>

8

<p>Yield can be manipulated (by the use of ED and waitlists, and by rejecting overqualified applicants). In the Revealed Preference paper, they accuse Princeton of rejecting people with higher SAT scores to increase their yield.</p>

9

<p>Don't be fooled by Princeton's 29% rate; they are smaller, often have overall better applicants (many apply to Harvard because it's on common and they think "just for fun"...at Princeton the app is much harder and many go...why bother?). It is still an extraordinarily selective school.</p>

10

<p>who cares? yale's the best.</p>