<p>I sent an e-mail to student assistant about merit scholarship and
part of her reply to my e-mail was,</p>
<p>"There were 13000 applications total and we only had 1150 spaces this year..."</p>
<p>WOW, that means it's only 8%... ... .</p>
<p>Is this true that ONLY 8% got accepted this year?
But I thought the percentage was around 30%....</p>
<p>The process has another step or two. You admit x and you get x-y acceptances. That is your yield, a figure that colleges tout (usually for no good reason). You end up with a relatively small percentage of the total. Example: Boston University had something like 38k applications for a class of about 4k. They admitted a lot of kids to get 4k acceptances but if you look at the raw comparison of class size to applications you see again about 8%.</p>
<p>FYI, yield varies for a lot of reasons. Example: NYU has a high yield but if you look at the limited data they give out, it is pretty clear that’s because it’s in NYC, is the top choice for local kids who can’t get into an Ivy but who can afford NYU and it is a top choice for Jewish kids and NYC has the largest Jewish population. (I’m Jewish and don’t mean anything negative about that comment.) BU’s yield is lower in part because it’s a 2nd choice for kids from NYC, NJ. Each school has a story but the colleges trumpet numbers, which proves the old line about damned lies and statistics.</p>
<p>Percentages don’t always tell the whole picture. For instance, all colleges accept a certain number of students regardless of how many apply each year, i.e., 1150 students to be admitted against 13000 applications, but if 35000 applications were received, the accepted student number is still the same. Therefore, the more applications received, the lower the acceptance % is. This is why the top ranked universities have the lowest acceptance percentage rates.</p>
<p>are u sure it’s not about merit scholarships? they may say 30% but they count a few thousands as merit too. A few thousand isn’t going to help when it’s 60 thousand to attend</p>
<p>Here are the stats pulled off of their welcome packet:</p>
<p>Applied: 12,111
Admitted: 4,686
Enrolled: 1,087
Avg. GPA: 3.8
SAT CR: 610-720
SAT MA: 650-750
ACT: 28-33</p>
<p>These stats are for the class of 2013; this year’s stats are not finished yet so anything reported would only be an estimate at this point, though it is likely the same. Most likely that assistant gave you the number of enrolled instead of accepted. </p>
<p>On a more personal note, I can verify that they are VERY generous with financial aid and merit scholarships. Do not be discouraged by the high cost of attendance as they are happy to work with you and your budget.</p>
<p>Good thread… Though I do not have official numbers on hand, we recieved approximately, 12,800 applications, admitted between 35-40%, and yielded a freshman class of just under 1,200. The average GPA was once again about a 3.8, the average combined SAT a 2075, ACT 30-31. Merit scholarships are not determined be statistics alone - interviews, letters of recommendation, essays - all are considered.</p>
<p>Is that GPA weighted or unweighted?
Thanks</p>
<p>Fairly certain that’s unweighted.</p>
<p>It’s unweighted. Weighted GPA’s vary in how they’re calculated and often come out well above 4. I’ve seen 6 point scales - with 5 being honors and 6 being AP. Schools report a normalized GPA.</p>