Senior Staff at BusinessStudent.com conducted a study to analyze admissions rates from top schools from 2006 and compare them to twelve years later in 2018.Their analysis was restricted to just the top schools in the United States a decade ago (the top 51 according to US News back then) to see how their admissions rates changed.
Of the 51 schools they looked at, 48 schools were more difficult to get into, but two actually had higher admissions rates.
The key reasons provided were:
a) More number of applications per student
b) Increased global demand
c) Financial returns from attending a top shcool
You wonder how long it can go on like this. Just to use Stanford as an example, in 12 years, it’s admission rate has gone from 11% to 4.3%. Will it be 2% in 2030? Once the recruited athletes, development admits, URM’s etc … take their allotted slots, you’d be approaching a 0% admission rate for unhooked kids.
The article attributes declining acceptance rates to three factors:
Individuals applying to a greater number of schools (i.e., common app).
Increased global demand.
Increased financial rewards associated with attending top schools.
I agree that #1 and #2 are important factors, not so sure about #3. Career options and earning potential have always been important factors for people applying to top schools.
Once again “top schools” is defined as top universities, leaving out LACs, many of which have lower acceptance rates and have seen more dramatic drops than some of the schools on this list. Sigh.
Yield is a more telling number to look at. Colleges and universities can and will manipulate acceptance numbers, but it’s much harder to manipulate their yield number (Early Decision is one way).
Encouraging more students to apply is easy (Common app, free app, test-optional, etc.). Encouraging students to matriculate is much more difficult.
IMO…
75-100% yield - Spectacular
50-74% - Excellent
30-49% - Very good
25-29% - Good
Below 25% - Weak