<p>Let's begin with my favorite of all time, UChicago. Read this statement quoted from Chicago's admission website first (<a href="http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level2.asp?id=38):%5B/url%5D">http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level2.asp?id=38):</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
International applicants account for nearly 13 percent of Chicago’s undergraduate applicant pool. The University seeks academically talented, intellectually ambitious applicants from around the globe who possess awareness of and curiosity about the world around them. This past year, Chicago received 1,127 international applications, out of which 236 were admitted to join the community of scholars in the liberal arts college at on of America’s premier research universities.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>OK... So the acceptance rate for the poor internationals is about 21%, which is significantly lower than the total acceptance rate (38%). This is last year's statistics.</p>
<p>Now let's go to MIT in 2000, because I can only find numbers regarding international students for this year. But before I do any analysis, please bear in mind that competition for this kind of school only gets progressively severe every year.</p>
<p>Now read this (<a href="http://www-tech.mit.edu/V120/N2/1admissions.2n.html):%5B/url%5D">http://www-tech.mit.edu/V120/N2/1admissions.2n.html):</a>
[quote]
The pool of applicants this year consists of 10,641 high school students... This year, the admissions office received over 2,000 applications from non-U.S. residents, which is up from 1625 applications last year. Therefore, international applicants comprise a somewhat larger proportion of the application pool this year (19 percent versus 17 percent in 1999 and 16 percent in 1998)... This does not, however, mean that more international students will be accepted, as MIT tries to keep the international enrollment close to eight percent. This will require accepting a significantly smaller proportion of international students, as the matriculation rate for international students is somewhat higher than for domestic students...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>So there were about 10641*.19 = 2,022 international applicants in the year of 2000 for MIT.</p>
<p>Then read this (<a href="http://www-tech.mit.edu/V120/N16/2004.16n.html):%5B/url%5D">http://www-tech.mit.edu/V120/N16/2004.16n.html):</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
This year’s applicant pool of 10,681 applicants was also the largest ever, an increase of 17 percent over last year’s pool....only 1,604 students were admitted to the class of 2004... The admitted class includes 105 international students.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Time for some easy math:
General acceptance rate: 15%
Domestic acceptance rate: 17.3%
IS acceptance rate: 105/2022 = 5.2%
...which is one-third of the general acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Now let's take a look at Duke class of 2010</p>
<p>Again, read this (<a href="http://dukenews.duke.edu/2006/03/admissions.html):%5B/url%5D">http://dukenews.duke.edu/2006/03/admissions.html):</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
The number of international applicants has risen steadily during the past few years, Guttentag added, noting that Duke had 2,029 this year, representing a 185 percent increase in the number of international applicants in the last five years.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Since it is last year's class, it is a lot easier to check the class enrollment profile. Just go here <a href="http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2010profile.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/who_2010profile.asp</a>
And we know that among those 3,161 who were accepted, 8% of them are international. That would about 253 students.</p>
<p>General acceptance rate: 19.8%
Domestic students acceptance rate: 20.8%
International acceptance rate: 12.5%
That's not that ridiculous...</p>
<p>Conclusion: admission to elite university for international students is A LOT tougher. I'm sorry. </p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>