<p>I really hope that it don't reach an all-time-high in applications and selectivity this year. Can anyone (Byerly, NSM...) give an estimated prognose of how competitive the class of '11 will be?</p>
<p>it's harvard...you will be competing with the top students in the world no matter what year!</p>
<p>Yes of course but then again, a small dip in for example applications would make a great impact.</p>
<p>Discourage everyone you know, in the strongest possible terms, from applying.</p>
<p>A dip in app #s will affect the acceptance rate only if Harvard wants it to. Harvard can, if it chooses, lower its acceptance rate even with a drop in the number of applications. The logic is too involved and I don't have time to go into it.</p>
<p>Poison all those peers at your school whose rank is higher than yours.
Survival of the sickest!</p>
<p>23000 people apply a year, only 2000 (or is it 3000) are accepted</p>
<p>You're going to falter, so there is no reason in applying. Oh, wait, I applied for 2010. </p>
<p>I mean, you go! You have a great chance!</p>
<p>laughing out loud</p>
<p>Class of 2011 will be amazing. the high school class of 07 is really competitive. so I bet it will be a tough competition to get into the top schools. The class is also bigger than 06.</p>
<p>Um...Very.</p>
<p>This is a stupid thread. I mean Duh! Its Harvard lol! But hey it can always be worse, at least we aren't applying to IIT.</p>
<p>IIT is significantly easier to gain admission to than Harvard because the admissions requirement for IIT only consist of an applicant performing well on the JEE, an exam which measures a student's math, physics, and chemsitry abilities. Basically, if you study all day then you are guaranteed to do well on the JEE exam and get into IIT(provided you don't have a mental deficiency) however all the studying in the world WILL NOT get you into Harvard.</p>
<p>I wonder if Harvard will intentionally shoot for a lower acceptance rate than Yale's this time.</p>
<p>lol i hope not! it would suck if yale and harvard started a who can have the lowest acceptance rate game.</p>
<p>looking at the stats all around this year, it seems that the competition for this year (this is by no means statistically accurate whatsoever, just some personal speculation) is going to be very dynamic. i mean, the applicants will either be very strong or can be rejected without hesitation.</p>
<p>You can't "shoot for a lower acceptance rate".
Yale's lower acceptance rate reflects its greater applicant pool and/or fewer spaces.</p>
<p>Unless Harvard is willing to leave some empty spots or conjure up some straw applicants, they can't lower their admissions rate intentionally.</p>
<p>i think it is possible, because obviously they know their own acceptance rate last year and yale's is public too. technically they can say to themselves "this year, a max acceptance rate of all applicants will be 9%" (though not sure if that's a record low since i haven't done research on harvard's acceptance rates)</p>
<p>Dude, </p>
<p>Acceptance rate = #accepted/#applied.
To lower the acceptance rate you need to either decrease the numerator or increase the denominator. </p>
<p>A) They can't lower their #accepted (i.e. decrease the numerator) to any substantial degree, because they know that a certain number of admits will, as statistics show, choose another college. This means that if they lower their #accepted they will have some vacant spots --- which they will have to fill with defferees anyway; and once you remove someone from the waitlist, he automatically becomes an admit technically. So you haven't achieved anything. Only if they make the class size smaller will the #accepted be decreased.</p>
<p>B) you obviously can't raise your #applied (i.e. increase the denominator). No explanation needed.</p>
<p>
[quote]
This means that if they lower their #accepted they will have some vacant spots --- which they will have to fill with defferees anyway
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What are you talking about? Anyways, if they lower the # of applicants accepted, and the matriculation doesn't cover the amount of open slots, they will take from the waitlist. The acceptance rates have already come out, and obviously they haven't factored in the waitlisted-accepted students into the rate. So yeah, it IS possible to intentionally lower the acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Oh, I thought they calculate acceptenace rates at the very end of the process - regarding accepted defferees as admits.</p>
<p>I suppose you can lower admit rate, then...</p>
<h1>admitted = (Desired Size of Class - Hovers Limitedly) / Yield Rate</h1>
<p>So acceptance rate = ((Desired Size of Class - Hovers Limitedly) / Expected Yield Rate) / # Applications</p>
<p>The biggest factor behind Yale's falling admit rate is the change in the yield, less so the # of applicants.</p>