<p>Hmm.. wonder if she is referring to me and if it was intended as insult. :) But in my defense, I am good at research and I read.. a lot. And I am online.. a lot! This said, I wish there WERE more current students on this website. It would definitely make it far more current and helpful to prospective students. Other sites are great too.. uni go dot com and ******* come to mind, but those too get dated rather quickly... especially in light of this past year and the changes etc that the economy has hurried along.</p>
<p>USNWR: Midd moves up to #4! Although really, is it that Midd moved up or that Wellesley slipped? Doesn't matter and rankings are somewhat dubious regardless. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the ranking is a nice bit of PR. Of course there was a recent study that said that the ranking seem to benefit large universities, but that families who are interested in CLA's are usually more "savvy" about higher education and don't really care about rankings. Not sure I agree with that they don't care about them, but MAYBE it's true that they know how to use the information with a little more perspective.</p>
<p>Admittedly, it's hard to reckon this #4 with Forbes' ranking of 25 or whatever it was, but when you look at quality of iife and other lists, I think Midd has a lot of reasons to be proud about where it is headed.</p>
<p>It’s the data for the class entering fall '08. US News uses the common data set raw figures to determine the acceptance rate for the class entering fall '08.</p>
<p>Here’s what the CDS asks for:
</p>
<p>Total Applicants: 7,823
Total Accepted (for September, including wait list acceptances): 1,361
September acceptance rate: 16.8%</p>
<p>This figure does not account for the Febs, who technically don’t enroll in 2008 or during the summer. The CDS doesn’t yet have a question related to the reporting of mid-year enrollees. The January or February matriculants at schools like Middlebury, Colby, USC, American, and University of Maryland fall through the cracks at present. It’s a major sticking point for those who think these schools game the system by not including mid-year matriculants, and I sort of agree. The CDS question should be revised to specifically include January and February matriculants.</p>
<p>Bottom line is that there were less applications this year and they seemed to have a class size of about 25 more (just in the fall) over last year. So, this next year might be a blip. However, now on the website it clearly says there are no supplemental essays beyond the common app. So I imagine that will kick the applications up hugely for next year and they’ll again get a low admission rate. I am pretty sure that USNWR actually looks at a two year record (not averaging per say, but comparing). So even though this year’s admit rate was over 20% (I think), it will balance somehow.</p>
<p>Who cares? Why the need to drive down the admit rate by a few points just to pander to USN&WR? If that’s why Midd dropped the application essay, it’s perverse and has nothing to do with providing a quality education. If anything, it demonstrates that Midd was willing to drop a requirement (the essay) that for years it deemed relevant to selecting and enrolling a quality class just for the sake of gaining the so-called “prestige” of a thousand or so extra applicants who otherwise would not apply because they were too lazy to write an extra essay. That’s one aspect about Midd that I find phony and greatly disturbing - and I’m otherwise extremely impressed with the school. I wish Midd, and other schools, would simply have the integrity and self-assurance to decide that they know more about providing a quality education than some news magazine.</p>
<p>The issue has nothing to do with USNews. Remember: this was the College that, 4 years ago, decided to include every SAT score rather than the 52% that selected to use the SATs as the choice test (as is the option and is the way some peer schools still do it). That lowered the reported SATs by 60 points or so…and the College still moved from 11th to 8th to 5th…and now 4th.</p>
<p>The issue, as reported on campus, was a staffing issue. The College, as a result of the financial situation, is not replacing all positions that come open, and depts that had been staffed up (and admissions was one due to the huge increase in apps the past 6 years) are not guaranteed replacement positions. Thus, with fewer staff, they will save time and be able to give more time to the application and to committee discussion rather than to the supplemental sections. Now they may not have thought that the number of apps will increase with the elimination of the essays, but perhaps they should have; Williams believes its apps dropped 20% this past year because it added an essay.</p>
<p>But this was not about gaming US News. That doesn’t work, and that is not how Midd now operates.</p>
<p>N.C. Cat: Thanks for the campus perspective. Now that you mention it, I think I read that the reason Midd’s apps decreased this year was because Midd started requiring the app fee to be submitted along with the pre-application supplement. (?). If that’s correct, I guess it goes to show that Midd’s policies aren’t all geared toward driving up the application numbers.</p>
<p>CrewDad: believe me, my rant wasn’t directed just against Midd. It’s just that I find the whole USN&WR obsession the most distasteful part of the college search process, which I am otherwise enjoying. (It’s been thrilling to learn how many really good colleges there are out there!). What’s most aggravating, is that as much as I dislike the rankings, they are almost impossible to ignore - just like it’s hard to look away from a gruesome car wreck on the highway.</p>
<p>It’s so funny you should mention this. The truth about supplemental essays is that once you write one or two (maybe three), you have enough material to craft together an essay for any supplement asked of you. And I imagine that would have held true for Williams’ essay as well, but no matter what his counselor said about the school, S just hated the question; He felt it was pretentious. Admittedly, it was a little esoteric, but I didn’t think it was offensive or anything. In any event, for better or worse, as an 18 year old kid, he looked at some supplemental questions and made assumptions about schools. Of course, I am not ruling out the possibility that after 8 applications, he was pretty tapped out when it came to supplements, even with the ability to tweak them.</p>
<p>As I said elsewhere, unless they changed the date, you had to have the supplement in with the fee paid a full two weeks before the applicaton deadline for Midd. Not sure if theyre doing this for next year, but it definitely forced you to decide whether you were applying or not. Now, if you’re just trying to drum up applications, lose the application fee entirely for all applicants, which is what both Colgate and Hamilton did.</p>
<p>I thought this was pretty common knowledge about the variant ways schools can report their SAT scores and still be following the rules, per say. It’s right up there with how schools can report their testing results (and how they can exclude certain scores) to still be in compliance with “No child left behind.”</p>
<p>Also, while I am sure the article linked above still holds some merit, the fact that it is nearly 10 years since it’s writing discredits it as a reliable source for something that happens (and has been tweaked) every year. Sorry. As an historical review, maybe. As a comment on current practices, it’s too old.</p>
<p>I’m thrilled Midd has gained in the ranking. But all the rapid rise does is validate the thesis Nicholas Thompson–a highly respected educational journalist - presented in his article. Changes at colleges move at a glacial place. <em>Any</em> college that moves by the percentage Midd has in a short 60 months, did so by either the college or USNWR finessing the numbers. USNWR is in the business of selling magazines; the ranknings issues is their most lucrative issue. If the rankings remained static, well… kill the golden goose comes to mind. Why buy the mag? ;)</p>
<p>Barnard is ranked # 30. Columbia University and all its facilities are an integral part of a Barnard education. Do you really believe the top LAC’s- ranked 20-29 spots higher than Barnard, are that much better than, in effect, an Ivy?</p>
<p>Hey guys, sorry, I didn’t mean to start anything. I just wasn’t informed with how they determine the acceptance rate for USN&WR. I think the rankings are fun (especially because Midd always does well), but I recognize that they’re pretty subjective too. I mean, does anyone believe there’s a real difference in the quality of education at any of the top 25 schools? At this level it’s really all about fit. Every one of these schools is a great place to get an education. At this level we’re really splitting hairs. Having said that, it’s really nice to be listed among the top 4 (even though, I’ve always known/believed, there’s no better place in the country to get an education than Midd).</p>
<p>Frankly, I think all the schools in the top 50 are a hair split apart and as urban says, it’s about personal fit at that point (and is also why you can’t force a 17 year old to write an essay).</p>
<p>Accusation is probably a strong word that will result in a defensiveness. Not being critical of the question, just the way it’s worded. But, you’d have to skew quite a bit of information in order to have it affect your rankings because it’s never based on just one measure - even though I don’t always agree with the measures themselves as viable ones to a good education. But going from five to four in a year is probably not a whole lot different than Amherst and Williams being tied to going to #2 and #1. Hair splitting.</p>
<p>Just one more thing… I think the way USNWR measures diversity sucks… unless they are ONLY measuring socioeconomic diversity of US students and that no other matters. By looking only at Pell Grant recipients, I think it’s an all too narrow scope. Numbers of dollars and % of students getting aid is probably a better measure. Just saying</p>
<p>You might have a point. It was asserted … better? :)</p>
<p>Hopefully, NorthCountryCat has the answer. If at some colleges reported SATs aren’t an accurate representaion of the entire class, it would beneficial to know.</p>
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<p>You missed the point. Moving 7 spots in 60 months raises questions. I would be just as questioning if a college moved down 7 spots. No big deal.</p>
In any event, for better or worse, as an 18 year old kid, he looked at some supplemental questions and made assumptions about schools. Of course, I am not ruling out the possibility that after 8 applications, he was pretty tapped out when it came to supplements, even with the ability to tweak them.</p>