Middle 50% scores? What does this really mean?

Applying to College
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<p>Shaggy007: This is likely the case. Here is the USC profile. Notice the differences between those who apply, are admitted and who enroll. At this school, the numbers for enrolled are higher than for those who applied, but those for admitted were highest of all. My guess is that it is similar elsewhere.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1011/FreshmanProfile2010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1011/FreshmanProfile2010.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>In most of the top-20 schools, ECs and community service play a large role in determining who gets in and who doesn’t; often even perfect stats aren’t enough. To be competitive in these schools (if you are unhooked) you really need the hit the 75% threshold plus have exceptional and unique ECs or hit the 90% threshold with leadership in some very good ECs.</p>

<p>The trouble with these general stats is that, for the very top schools, they lie: Once the admins admit the athletes, URMs, legacies, sons and daughters of CEOs and Congressmen and those with truly exceptional stories outside of the classroom, then they need to cherry-pick the very highest stats, consistent with great ECs, to raise their average scores across the board. If you’re unhooked without a unique story to tell, you’ll be doing the heavy lifting academics-wise. It would be nice to see the stats of these schools in graph form – I doubt very much it’s a bell-shaped curve, more likely it would have two widely-separated peaks, one for the hooked and one for the unhooked.</p>

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<p>bclintonk,</p>

<p>That’s a good point. I was not taking yield into account. For the Brown data, the middle 50% applied appears very similar to the middle 50% enrolled, but the middle 50% accepted is higher. But I think my conclusion is very reasonable beyond the most selective colleges based on the USC data.</p>

<p>I added more columns to the Brown data on ACT scores.</p>

<p>



ACT            %                %        Accept          %        %
Score  Applied Applied Accepted Accepted Rate   Enrolled Enrolled Yield</p>

<p>36       113    1.0%    36       3.8%    31.9%   11       2.0%     30.6%
33-35  3,280   29.1%   405      42.8%    12.3%  191      34.4%     47.2%
29-32  5,056   44.8%   357      37.7%     7.1%  236      42.5%     66.1%
26-28  1,719   15.2%   103      10.9%     6.0%   77      13.9%     74.8%
23-25    754    6.7%    43       4.5%     5.7%   37       6.7%     86.0%
< 23     361    3.2%     3       0.3%     0.8%    3       0.5%    100.0%

</p>

<p>The % Applied column is:
number of applicants in that ACT range/number of applicants</p>

<p>The % Accepted column is:
number of accepted in that ACT range/number of accepted</p>

<p>The Accept Rate column is:
number of accepted in that ACT range/number of applicants in that ACT range</p>

<p>The % Enrolled column is:
number of enrolled in that ACT range/number of enrolled</p>

<p>The % Yield column is:
number of enrolled in that ACT range/number of accepted in that ACT range</p>

<p>The % Enrolled column is the basis for the middle 50% that is typically published. Note that it is very similar to the % Applied column. However, the % Accepted column shows higher ACT scores. The difference between the % Applied and % Accepted columns is because there is a higher acceptance rate for higher ACT scores. The difference between the % Accepted and % Enrolled columns is due to a lower yield for the higher scores.</p>

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<p>With the possible exceptions of Harvard and Yale, ALL colleges will have lower numbers for matriculants than for admitted.</p>