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Oh, I don’t know about that. The survey is done by HERI/CIRP, not the universities themselves. More significantly, students don’t really have an incentive to be dishonest. </p>
<p>As a gauge of the survey, look at Emory, which publishes its survey data. Roughly 54% of Emory freshmen noted that it was their first choice – reasonably accurate, when one considers that ED admits make up about 38% of each class.</p>
<p>Also remember that the US has about 2200 four-year colleges. Of these, only a very small percentage (1 in 20 at most) reject more students than they admit. It’s perfectly reasonable that many students are admitted to their top choices.</p>