<p>^You are forgetting about yield. Speaking of schools with general interests (ie: not Julliard and the like) Harvard’s admit rate is the lowest.</p>
<p>Admit rates are lower this year compared to last yr, and I assume that last yr was lower than a couple of yrs ago. I would be interested to see admit AND YIELD rates over the last few 3-5 yrs - when more schools adopted the Common App, and when, presumably, there have been more people applying to more schools.</p>
<p>Wash U hasn’t really released their accepatnce rate for class of 2014…they say it’s “about 20 %” …anyone have more accurate data?</p>
<p>“It’s not as if these colleges are admitting fewer students because the schools are shrinking – admit rates are dropping because kids routinely apply to 15 schools when years ago, they’d apply to 4.”</p>
<p>This is certainly a factor in the increase to the denominator, but isn’t it also the case that just about now is the time of the height of the baby boomer boomlet (the baby boomers’ kids are now college age)? I heard somewhere that this yr (or was it last yr) is the height of this boom. </p>
<p>So with the highest numbers of kids applying is multiplied by the ease of applying w/ the internet and the Common App and is mutliplied by the higher standards of this group applying today for college (offspring of the baby boomers who were already college educated, so how do outdo mom and dad, you attempt to go to a top 20 uni or LAC!), you got a much bigger denominator in all colleges, but especially in the top 20 colleges.</p>
<p>just sayin’ :)</p>
<p>well…now that we’ve heard about the Ivies and the UC’s, what about the rates at lower tier schools?</p>
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<p>Yes, but the admit rates are down from last year.</p>
<p>I got my rejection letter from University of San Francisco. The admissions said that they are not accepting a lot of students this fall. It went low but they said maybe few were accepted and most are rejected and wait listed. :(</p>
<p>The baby boom took place last year and this year. The class of 2011 contains fewer students, and acceptance rates will consequently rise.</p>
<p>^any sources?</p>
<p>“Yes, but the admit rates are down from last year.”</p>
<p>Admit rates are a function of how many apps a college gets since the seats are fixed. If there are more kids applying (baby boomer boomlet), there will be more apps, and hence a lower admit rate.</p>
<p>Here is one ref to the kind of dynamic that I am trying to describe.</p>
<p><a href=“http://mathacle.blogspot.com/2010/01/brown-gets-record-30000-applications.html[/url]”>http://mathacle.blogspot.com/2010/01/brown-gets-record-30000-applications.html</a></p>
<p>But there aren’t more kids applying than last year. Last year saw the same baby boom phenomenon as this year.</p>
<p>I’m serious about the Common App instituting an application limit. Even if there are other ways to apply, it’ll at least cause applicants to have more work and deter them from applying to 15+ schools.</p>
<p>Common App does not let you apply to more than 20 schools.</p>
<p>They need to make the limit smaller and actually somewhat effective.</p>
<p>I’d like to the see the breakdown of the numbers of who is applying - especially to the fave top 20-30 schools for starters :)</p>
<p>Whether last yr or this yr is the very top of the wave of boomers’ boomlets, it is still a whole lot of people applying.</p>
<p>I know another entry into US colleges are internationals. Already growing, I believe they will get even a bigger slice as the baby boomer boomlet recedes and as those other countries increase their standard of living. The students will compete for college slots, just as their parents now must compete for jobs (I am currently unemployed due to outsourcing IT functions to India, eg). I bet that colleges of all sizes and desirability, especially the privates, will be courting and marketing to them. It’s the colleges’ long term livlihood at stake. I bet they are doing this now.</p>
<p>But I agree that this effect is multiplied by the ease with which one can apply to so many colleges (or cd be vice versa, too).</p>
<p>An interesting question: Could anyone do a quick “demand” analysis for top colleges? By that I mean that one should assume 100% yield. This will give us a rough measure of how much “in demand” each spot at the university is. Clearly it’s flawed, but it may be interesting – Harvard might not be #1 given this new metric.</p>
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<p>Perhaps a better way to judge is to look at the preferences of cross-admitted students. This reveals the preferences of admitted students that have an acutal choice between two schools, not just a desire to attend a school. Again, Harvard comes out #1.</p>
<p>I recall seeing a newer ranking system based on Elo points, which apparently is used in chess. This system, as far as I read it, considers each college playing against each other when vying for [similar] applicants, sort like a chess game. I notice that, yes, Harvard , in this system, is still the champ, followed by YSP.</p>
<p><a href=“http://college.m”>http://college.m</a> y c h a n c e s . n e t/college-rankings.php</p>
<p>this must be more interesting to the people in the college biz than to applicants, I suspect. Another game. Maybe some enterprising kid should make a space invaders type of RPG video game where you can assume the role of Harvard --darth vader music plays – against… whatever. Ammo would be extra big donations to the endowment. etc :)</p>
<p>Does anyone have stats on the average number of applications a student sends over the years?</p>
<p>Cooper Union </p>
<p>The Cooper Union is one of the most selective colleges in the United States, with an acceptance rate generally below 10% (although both the art and architecture schools have acceptance rates lower than 5%). The school experienced a 20% increase in applications for the 2008-2009 academic year, further lowering the acceptance ratio.
Cooper Union also experienced a 70% increase in early decision applications for the 2009-2010 academic year…
Further lowering the acceptance ratio around or less than 1%</p>
<p>lol</p>