<p>i just got the new princeton review 371 best colleges book. in the 2008 version amherst’s selectivity was a 99/100, the highest ranking on par with harvard, mit etc. However in this edition amherst is rated a 98 selectivity (same as cornell) and a 94/99 academic rating. What is with this? i really doubt its easier to get into Amherst this year than 2008 with around 8600 applicants.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it. A chance ranking in one of those books doesn’t mean anything. Those numbers are garnered from surveys.</p>
<p>Amherst is the same school it was with the highest numbers, and it will have them again.</p>
<p>Take a deep breath and forget about it.</p>
<p>Class of 2013 (enrolled)
CR: 660-760
M: 650-780
W: 660-770
ACT: 30-34
Top 10th: 85 percent
Acceptance rate: 15.1 percent</p>
<p>Class of 2012 (enrolled)
CR: 660-760
M: 660-760
W: 660-760
ACT: 29-33
Top 10th: 79 percent
Acceptance rate: 14.2 percent</p>
<p>Class of 2011 (enrolled)
CR: 670-770
M: 660-760
W: 670-760
ACT: 29-34
Top 10th: 85 percent
Acceptance rate: 17.6 percent</p>
<p>I don’t see significant discrepancies between the caliber of Amherst’s classes over the years. Few students participate in the Princeton Review surveys, and the ones who do may be airing out their frustrations against the College, and this handful of negative experiences may cause significant detriment to the College’s “Academics” and “Quality of Life” scores.</p>
<p>You’re a high school student fretting about a college’s posted selectivity in Princeton Review dropping from 99 to 98?</p>
<p>Is it just me?</p>
<p>^roflcopter</p>
<p>well for whatever reason, the people that make this book no longer felt that Amherst was as selective as williams, harvard, princeton etc, but did two years ago. just wondering what changed.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/182193/original/AmherstCollegeSSR_2013.pdf[/url]”>https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/182193/original/AmherstCollegeSSR_2013.pdf</a>
<a href=“https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/83206/original/08%20122%20SSR.pdf[/url]”>https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/83206/original/08%20122%20SSR.pdf</a></p>
<p>Here’s very, very specific data for the Classes of 2013 and 2012.
You can make up your own mind.</p>
<p>Does anybody know what goes into those ratings, specifically, academics? Are they based only on students self reports of how hard their classes are, how much time they spend studying, etc. Or are there some more objective measures used? I searched the Princeton Review website and couldn’t find it. Maybe it’s in the book.</p>
<p>Worried about some self-elected “authority” – especially one whose main objective is to get you to buy its book – changing its ranking for a particular school from 99 to 98?</p>
<p>Good grief – get a life!</p>
<p>If you want to worry about something that matters I would worry about the impact of their investment portfolio on their budget.</p>
<p>everyone can relax, kwu thank you for the numbers i was just answering everyone telling me how ridiculous i was for caring. the reason this affected me is because i was kindof reassured an early offer as an athlete but now i have to wait because the applicant pool is so large and competitive. it seemed ridiculous that the selectivity would be downgraded this year.</p>
<p>Oh dear. Sounds like another d-3 disaster-hope you make it in!</p>
<p>What’s the size of the applicant pool, abstract? Just curious.</p>
<p>First, the ratings for the 2010 edition are based off of stats from the 2009 admissions cycle. Maybe the admissions ratings will rise back to the coveted 99 in the 2011 edition. Second, the applicant pool has been very large and competitive for a while. Amherst doesn’t guarantee admission for athletes like many D1 schools do, right?</p>
<p>^ It’s kind of hard to look at Amherst’s applicant pool as “large” when my other two top schools I applied to have about 30k applicants. :-P</p>
<p>SaintSaens, the athletic piece of the admissions puzzle is complicated. A student athlete can certainly be misled by a D3 school. There is no early signing and that sort of thing like in D1, but communication between athletes and coaches at D3 schools happens all the time. It can be a very confusing process to say the least, and a student can be misled in the cat-and-mouse game that is D3 recruiting because they don’t have access to all the information that’s in the mix for the coach and the admissions office. I’m not blaming anyone in this instance or in general – that ambiguity is pretty much build into the system, unfortunately.</p>