<p>For those of you who love stats, here are some of the latest Early Decision/Action figures from "The Choice." The article also includes a link to College Confidential and to one CC thread: [url=<a href="http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/2012-early-admission/%5DEarly">http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/2012-early-admission/]Early</a> Line on Early Admissions - NYTimes.com<a href="Those%20of%20you%20who%20posted%20on%20that%20thread%20can%20now%20claim%20to%20have%20been%20quoted%20in%20%5Bi%5DThe%20New%20York%20Times%5B/i%5D.">/url</a> :)</p>
<p>Regardless of what the stats may suggest, I agree with the folks who contend that this was the toughest-ever year for admissions. Even if some applicant pools went down or acceptance rates went up, the statistics don't take into account the spiraling stress levels that come from stacking transcripts with AP classes, from expanding resumes with student-founded non-profit corporations and costly "volunteer" trips abroad, and from wondering where the money will come from to pay for all of this in a struggling economy.</p>
<p>Parents who never even glanced at an SAT-prep book when they were in high school themselves are now springing for private tutoring for their progeny, with the belief that even the priciest test-prep classes won't suffice. High school students are increasingly sacrificing courses they want to take or activities they want to pursue in favor of those that "look good" on applications. In spite of exhortations to consider excellent but lesser- known colleges or to opt for affordable honors programs at public universities, the interest in "name" schools continues to grow. </p>
<p>So each year I find this crazy process tougher than in years before, regardless of how you crunch the numbers.</p>
<p>It’s a shame that I have to be in this college admissions process at its highest peak (and I imagine acceptance rates will start to increase in future years).</p>
<p>But at the same time I think all of this hysteria over miniscule acceptance rates and “doing anything to get a leg up on admissions” is alleviated with the fact that the smart, motivated students will come out on top, no matter if they got a degree from Princeton or the state flagship.</p>
<p>I have spent the past two days looking over the MIT EA results thread. Just look at the stats of the people who got deferred. I can’t even believe it.</p>
<p>It’s the truth.</p>
<p>Colleges are lowering their acceptance rates by ridiculous amounts. Tufts, for example, went down from 27% to 22% in a matter of four years. </p>
<p>Students like me are pretty stressed out :). </p>
<p>Oh well. We should all just suck it up like they say and work hard. </p>
<p>Good luck to all us applicants!! </p>
<p>Sent from my Desire HD using CC App</p>
<p>Colleges aren’t lowering their acceptance rates. The acceptance rates are lowering themselves because more people are applying. Tufts, for example, has admitted the same number of people each year for a long time (around 3500). The colleges are still accepting the same number of people, but they look more selective just because more kids are trying to get in.</p>
<p>blueWednesday is absolutely correct. Please remember, more applicants does NOT mean more people will be accepted. Rather, top universities (including Tufts) tend to accept the same number of individuals annually, regardless of how many apply. The admit rate naturally goes down (since the denominator of your fraction is increasing). Don’t get psyched out by the numbers; just put together the best application possible and send it in! Karma and fate play a role in this, too!</p>
<p>“the smart, motivated students will come out on top, no matter if they got a degree from Princeton or the state flagship.”</p>
<p>So true !</p>
<p>“The acceptance rates are lowering themselves because more people are applying.” - I agree. If it were easier to accurately predict acceptances, FA and scholarship… there would be fewer apps (especially from the top students). But that’s not how the game is played, and you have to play the game.</p>
<p>good thing schools have CDS though. Like if your SAT is below 1900, don’t count on getting into Stanford… or if you’re out of the top-10% of your class, don’t count on Penn!</p>
<p>These numbers don’t tell the whole story. </p>
<p>While students may be ever more interested in applying to name brand schools, these stats and dropping admissions rates DO NOT IMPLY that it’s strictly harder to get into a name school. This is because, to take the extreme case, that it could just be that, with more students gaining interest in name brand schools, we observe just more <em>less</em> qualified students applying, meaning that the <em>relevant</em> admissions rate hasn’t changed. As usual, we’d really like schools to break down admissions rates over relevant dimensions, like test scores, sex, GPA, and perhaps classes of extracurricular achievements. Schools report that their admissions processes are holistic, but the data may reveal a trends that aren’t otherwise visible. So though it seems harder, it may not actually be the case. </p>
<p>Further, increases in competitiveness don’t <em>seem</em> consistent with the more or less stagnant test score averages (though medians may be rising?).</p>
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<p>And those same “less qualified students” unfortunately have legacy, connections, or athletics and get in over the “more qualified” students (and I put ‘more qualified’ in quotes because I know people will say “oh well they’re more qualified to fill the legacy or athletic quota, blah, blah, blah”… so I mean qualified academics-wise)</p>
<p>Of course. But don’t take the quote out of context: I qualified it as the <em>extreme</em> case, one that (implicitly) ruled out that complication.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, up until this year I’d have called it an “extreme case,” but going by what I’ve seen so far at my school and the surrounding ones this year, it seems to be the norm. We had a kid with an SAT of less than 1800, 2 honors classes ever, and no APs get into an HYP this year because of a sport. Don’t even get me started on the legacies. Lol, 2011 is the year for the "less-qualified"s.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, we had a couple great kids get in to top EA/ED on pure merit, and some of the legacies/athletes/connections kids had pretty decent scores anyway, but the overwhelming majority left us shocked as kids in all over the entire region with no hooks and stellar stats were turned down in favor of “fairly decent” hooked kids.</p>
<p>I think there’s no question that admissions is getting harder. Everyone from my top prep school who applied early got deferred, even though we regularly send 25% of our graduating class to ivies.</p>
<p>what we miss is that above a certain level the differences between one set of stellar stats and another are meaningless . . . in 2010 there were 2331 kids with a 2350 or better on the SAT and 48,441 with a 2120 or higher ( just to pick a number) . . . I’d argue that all the 2120 kids are theoretically good enough by their SAT scores for any of the elite schools, and that the gradations in higher SAT scores are not as important as other non-quantified attributes (e.g., drive; commitment, emotional intelligence, special skills, like the bassoon, sports)</p>
<p>we are only shocked because we want to believe that the small gradations in stellar stats are signficant, that somehow a 2350 kid deserves the spot over all others, and practically all of the 2120 kids in my example are “good enough” for all those schools </p>
<p>but the biggest driver is that unlike decades ago we now believ that it’s absolutee critical that a student must attend a nationally named school to be a success in life . . . obviously untrue, but we believe it regardless</p>
<p>I wonder how much the extremely smart international full pay kids have to with perceived shrinking opportunities for domestic students</p>
<p>“I wonder how much the extremely smart international full pay kids have to with perceived shrinking opportunities for domestic students?”</p>
<p>EXACTLY !! </p>
<p>IMHO, many of the selective schools are more interested in maintaining their stats (and their bottom line) than in educating America’s children.</p>
<p>Isn’t there a cap of International kids that are accepted to the top universities. I mean say Stanford accepts 10% international in their freshman class. Thought they maintain that ratio. I think the inherent issue is not the international students but in general, everyone has this idea that you got to get to the top 20…</p>
<p>Early Admit Rates for the Class of 2016
1.) MIT (EA) 11.3%</p>
<p>2.) Stanford (REA) 12.8%</p>
<p>3.) Georgetown (EA) 14.7%</p>
<p>4.) Yale (SCEA) 15.7%</p>
<p>5.) UChicago (EA) 17.6%</p>
<p>6.) Harvard (SCEA) 18.2%</p>
<p>7.) Brown (ED) 19.0%</p>
<p>8.) Columbia (ED) 20.4%</p>
<p>9.) Princeton (SCEA) 21.0%</p>
<p>10.) Duke (ED) 24.5%</p>
<p>11.) Rice (ED) 24.9%</p>
<p>12.) Penn (ED) 25.4%</p>
<p>13.) Dartmouth (ED) 25.8%</p>
<p>14.) Vanderbilt (ED) 31.3%</p>
<p>15.) Cornell (ED) 32.5%</p>
<p>16.) Northwestern (ED) 32.8%</p>
<p>[Mathacle’s</a> Blog: Early Admit Rates for the Class of 2016](<a href=“http://mathacle.blogspot.com/2011/12/early-admit-rates-for-class-of-2016.html]Mathacle’s”>Mathacle's Blog: Early Admit Rates for the Class of 2016)</p>
<p>Here in California, the UC system is failing. Rising prices and no guarantees for getting through in four years, makes choosing a private university the best option! My son has a 4.1 GPA and is afraid he won’t get into collges that were easy to get into years ago!</p>
<p>I spoke to an individual and alumni from Duke University on this exact subject. Every year, tuition increases by a small amount in order to curb demand for admissions and keep a steady pace…however, it isn’t deterring anyone at all. The amount tuition is rising simply can not compete with the amount of people competing for college spots. And, students aren’t Terra Cotta Soldiers- there is a good spread of artists, mathematicians, athletes, etc…
Imagine a person at Macy’s during a sale. They try to avoid buying as much as possible but the sales are too alluring. The same thing occurs here- colleges want as much as they can get so every year more students (even just one or two) are admitted. The real problem is when this increase won’t be able to keep up with staff and tuition becomes unreasonable- who will go first, the students or the school? On a happy note, I was admitted to Duke (shameless self promotion…lol) under ED, but I assume it was extremely competitive and possibly a toss up. I will never know.</p>