It's friday, but lets do some monday morning quarterbacking

Parent Cafe
1

<p>As we know most of the decisions have been handed down, but what have we learned from this rounds of admissions? Here are the spins from the College's POV</p>

<p>Number of applications were up at many of the colleges and as a result the admit rates are lower</p>

<p>Columbia College Admits Record-Low 9.6 Percent </p>

<p>Of 17,148 Columbia College applicants, 1,653 students, or 9.6 percent, were admitted, down from 10.7 percent last year.</p>

<p>This year’s number is second only to Harvard College’s 2005 figure of 9.1 percent for the lowest ever in the Ivy League, though that does not include this year’s yet-to-be announced results from the most selective Ivies.</p>

<p>Those who applied to the College during regular decision, 7.9 percent of whom were admitted, faced significantly worse odds than the 1,956 applicants who applied early and got in at a rate of 23.2 percent.</p>

<p>For SEAS, 614 students were admitted out of 2,700 applicants for an admit rate of 22.7 percent, which, at 3.6 percent below last year, sets a record for the school.</p>

<p>Barnard College</p>

<p>4,587 applicants for an overall acceptance rate of about 25 percent.</p>

<p>“I think it’s a really strong class,” said Jennifer Fondiller, dean of admissions for Barnard. The class is “very, very strong in regard to GPAs and APs—very, very strong all around.”</p>

<p>Brown</p>

<p>Class of 2010 pool is larger, more diverse
Number of Asian-American and Latino applicants up, black applicants down</p>

<p>With a record-setting 18,298 total applicants for the class of 2010, Brown's applicant pool is getting larger every year - and more diverse.</p>

<p>Total applications are up 8.2 percent from last year, and all but one minority group saw an increase in applications from last year, according to statistics provided by the Office of Admission.</p>

<p>The number of Asian-American and Latino applicants increased by 11.9 percent and 12 percent, respectively, while American Indian applications increased by 14.1 percent (although they still made up less than 1 percent of the pool). International applications increased by 7.1 percent.</p>

<p>Brown saw a 4.7 percent decrease in the number of black applicants, but Dean of Admission Jim Miller '73 said that is not a cause for concern.</p>

<p>"If there is a decline in any group for more than three years, then it's a concern, but yearly fluctuations are not a cause for worry," Miller said, adding that this year Brown received the second-highest number of black applicants in its history.</p>

<p>There was also a 24.5 percent increase in the number of students who did not identify their race.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2006/02/27/CampusNews/Class.Of.2010.Pool.Is.Larger.More.Diverse-1639013.shtml?%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2006/02/27/CampusNews/Class.Of.2010.Pool.Is.Larger.More.Diverse-1639013.shtml?&lt;/a>
norewrite200603311135&sourcedomain=<a href="http://www.browndailyherald.com"&gt;www.browndailyherald.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Harvard</p>

<p>Class of '10 Set To Break Records for Numbers of Latinos, Women
Admissions dean attributes increasing diversity to success of financial aid initiative</p>

<p>Harvard has admitted more Latino students to next year’s freshman class than ever before in school history. Of the current high school seniors who received thick envelopes from Harvard, a record 9.8 percent are Latino, up from 8.2 percent last year. </p>

<p>The announcement from Harvard officials yesterday indicates that the composition of the College’s classes is following nationwide demographic trends, but it also demonstrates that Harvard still lags behind the rest of the country in the growth of its Latino population. Individuals of Hispanic origin compose 14.0 percent of the U.S. population, according to Census Bureau data from 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available. </p>

<p>The composition of the Class of 2010 reflects another nationwide demographic trend as well—women now outnumber men among Harvard’s admitted students, just as they do at undergraduate institutions across the country. According to Harvard officials, a record 51.8 percent of admitted students are female, up from 49.5 percent last year. </p>

<p>This year marks just the second time that women composed a majority of Harvard’s admitted class—50.1 percent of students who were accepted to the Class of 2008 were women. Nationwide, more than 56 percent of undergraduates are female. </p>

<p>The percentage of African-Americans in the admitted freshman class remained constant at 10.5 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of Asian-Americans rose to 17.7 percent, still a full percentage point below the Class of 1998’s mark.
<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512387%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512387&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Dartmouth</p>

<p>Of the 13,937 applicants to the class of 2010, a record low of only 15.4 percent were offered admission, which surpasses last year's previous record-low admission rate of approximately 17 percent. Of the 2,150 students offered admission this year, 398 were accepted as early decision applicants back in December. </p>

<p>"It was the most competitive year ever," Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg said. "Not only is the pool getting bigger, but the pool is getting stronger."</p>

<p>Of particular interest, women dominate the largest ever proportion of admits at 51.4 percent with 62 more females admitted than males. Furstenberg attributes this increase to the greater growth of applications from women.</p>

<p>Also of note, 93.8 percent of students were ranked in the top 10 percent of their high-school class, and 40.6 percent were valedictorians, both up from last year's percentages.</p>

<p>International student acceptances dropped slightly from recent years, with foreign students making up 7 percent of the admitted class. </p>

<p>Admitted students exhibit a strong minority representation, with 39.5 percent of admits being students of color, up slightly from last year's 38.8 percent. </p>

<p>African American students held about steady at 9.6 percent of admits, as did Latino and multi-racial students at 7.6 and 1.0 percent of acceptances respectively.</p>

<p>Asian American students made up 17.7 percent of students and Native Americans 3.6 percent, both up slightly from last year. </p>

<p>At a five-year high, 67.5 percent of admitted students come from public schools, with the number of students from private and parochial schools down to 28.7 and 3.8 percent respectively.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2006033101010%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2006033101010&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>It means that each applicant is throwing in more applications (no evidence that overall there are more qualified applicants to elite schools), therefore more applications are being turned down, but there is no evidence that any of these schools is actually more selective. And with more applications, and hence a lower rate of admission to any one school, the chances of a student attending "the wrong school" increase, and the chances of the school not getting the kind of class they were really looking for increases as well. It isn't a good development for anyone, except the CollegeBoard.</p>

3

<p>I just worry about what the process will be like for S2 in two years.</p>

4

<p>I have a S who is a college soph and now a S who is finishing up freshman year. My greatest concern right now for my youngest is reflected in the Dartmouth data.....93.8% in the top ten percent. Can this single factor take a kid out of the maybe pile? Our school only has 150 kids per class, give or take. So far, only 2 freshman boys are making high honors at our HS. My son is taking all Honors courses, but, if there are a lot of kids taking normal classes and scoring 94 and above, then the 4% uplift an honors grade provides is not enough to squeeze into the top ten percent. He is an athlete too....I do not want to have to stay on it...but, I am concerned about the lack of boys in the top 10% at our HS and others....and if this is all part of what is setting boys back? There are several very smart, active, sharp boys not making high honors. Oh well......reassurances that it aint' over yet are always welcome!! :-) (haven't mastered real smilies)</p>

5

<p>As long as he isn't fixated on any one school, he'll be just fine - the overall Ivy accept rate is still likely above 40%; the prestige LAC rate even higher.</p>

6

<p>Or my S in five...</p>

7

<p>You can add the explosion of applications at Cornell, where after years of being stable at around 20,000, the applications have skyrocketed to 28,000 in two years. </p>

<p>I also read a report from Interestedad that the applications at Swarthmore surged to around 5,000 applications. If verified, this would mean an increase od 25% over the average for the past years, and an admission rate of well below 20% from last year's 22%. On the other hand, applications at Claremont McKenna have remained stable at around 3600. Schools official have, however, said that they are not very comfortable with the low admission rate of about 20% and hope that the planned small increase in enrollment will change the dynamics. In the meantime, it seems that the expected enrollment for 2006-2007 will be ... smaller than last year's.</p>

<p>The numbers will improve in the next few years, but the road in 2007-2009 will be bumpy! :)</p>

8

<p>I read that Pomona is also planning to slightly increase in size as well.
Do you have any knowledge, xiggi, of how soon they plan to phase that in?</p>

9

<p>"As long as he isn't fixated on any one school, he'll be just fine - the overall Ivy accept rate is still likely above 40%; the prestige LAC rate even higher."</p>

<p>Mini, I understand that you're backing out the non-unique applications to derive the 40% net acceptance rate. However, are you sure that the rate is that high considering the eroding acceptance rates for ED/SCEA at several schools. the single digits rates in the RD rounds, and stratospheric yield numbers at HYPS? </p>

<p>While it is undeniable that a student presents multiple applications, a student cannot send more than ONE application per school. This means that each rejection is still an individual rejection.</p>

10

<p>"I read that Pomona is also planning to slightly increase in size as well.
Do you have any knowledge, xiggi, of how soon they plan to phase that in?"</p>

<p>The short answer is no. Given that CMC is one of the smallest LAC's, there is ample ammunition to support a slight increase. While the increase is almost inevitable, there has been quite a bit of debate about the best way to implement the changes. The financial commitments to increase by 5% or 10% are truly mind-boggling, and then come little pesky details such as construction disruptions and architecture! This was also discussed at length in the artciles about Amherst's expansion plans.</p>

11

<p>The eroding acceptance rates for ED/SCEA simply means that the SAME APPLICANTS end up submitting even more applications. In other words, all other things being equal (they never are), the result would be more applications. I did mis-speak perhaps - maybe we should be looking at the Ivy 'attendance rate' (85% yield?) rather than acceptance rate, though that won't make much difference. </p>

<p>What is true is that the high number of applications will likely result in less in the way of "fit", either from the school's point of view or from the students. In other words, the law of diminishing returns gets to the point that the schools are LESS likely to get the students they want, even as the number of student they turn down goes up.</p>

<p>So, if you don't care "which Ivy" or "which prestige LAC", and have the stats for them, chances are very good you'll be attending one of them (almost 50/50 for the Ivies, higher for the LACs), and there is no indication that this has changed.</p>

12

<p>We need to remember, and remind, and focus, that that we are discussing, at this point the top 20 or so schools</p>

<p>With hundreds of great school, we can't freak ourselves out too much</p>

<p>My Ds has already decided she dooesn't want to be part of that frenzy and the attitude "only ivy"- she is looking at other schools that have the classes and degrees she wants, more than just the name</p>

<p>hopefully, when kids read this thread, they will see its about the top few schools, and that if they work hard, plan well, most likely they will get into a great school that is right for them</p>

13

<p><a href="http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/30/442ba502bf26c%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/30/442ba502bf26c&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"Barnard College mailed out acceptance letters last week to 1,350 students out of 4,587 applicants for an overall acceptance rate of about 25 percent."</p>

<p>??? If 29.4% is "about 25%." ????</p>

14

<p>I don't think this is all about the Ivies. I think that the admit rate percentages are dropping at many other schools. Someone mentioned Swarthmore and Barnard here, and I know Middlebury's dropped this year, too. We'll get a better picture when more numbers come out.</p>

<p>This is my first year on CC, but it seems like a lot of kids are posting about getting rejections/waitlists from a lot of schools -- and a handful seem to be getting into a lot of schools. Is this typical? It's quite depressing to browse the College Admissions section -- lots of unhappy, desperate kids. </p>

<p>I am not looking forward to next year!</p>

15

<p>I would definitely like to see how admissions looked at other schools, so if parents, can post the the admissions snapshots of a few other schools, that would be great.</p>

16

<p>There will be more rejections and waitlists because there are more applications, but not necessarily collectively more applicants.</p>

<p>So things would look worse even if, objectively, they were not.</p>

17

<p>Well, not every school has the "mine is bigger than yours" press release ready to hand out simultaneously with admission decisions -- so data might be a bit slower in coming.</p>

18

<p>"The eroding acceptance rates for ED/SCEA simply means that the SAME APPLICANTS end up submitting even more applications."</p>

<p>Mini, aren't ED/SCEA really for discrete applicants?</p>

19

<p>I have a mathematical model that based on current trends predicts that in the year 2245 Columbia's acceptance rate will be 0%, which apparently is the goal of every highly selective school. </p>

<p>I accept that arithmetically acceptance rates are declining (or "eroding" if you will) but aren't they accepting the same number of applicants? It's just the number of applications that is increasing. </p>

<p>Also, if my (our?) theory is correct and the most important factor driving the surge in applications is an increase in applications per student, we should see a decline in yield. </p>

<p>I was a little surprised at the number of students boasting of multiple Ivy acceptances. I would love to see aggregate figures that show the number of acceptances offered by the Ivy league institutions and how many students received them. It would be say, 50,000 acceptances granted to.... we know it wouldn't be 50,000 students, but is it 40,000 students or is it.... 10,000 ? </p>

<p>It makes sense that the best colleges are competing for the best students, but it does seem ridiculous to me for some kids to apply to every Ivy league university.</p>

20

<p>"Mini, aren't ED/SCEA really for discrete applicants?"</p>

<p>Yes - exactly my point! As the percentage of ED acceptances goes DOWN, the number of total applications from those who first applied ED goes UP, without any change in the total number of applicants at all.</p>