@PengsPhils if BU had accepted same number of students as in past (average) 18k from 60k applicants that’s 30%… this year they accept 11k by shifting 600 kids out…
As for investments by universities that’s true all have invested to keep up with progress… if I’m comparing northeastern from the past they have come a long way just as NYU, BU and even Columbia have since the early 70s when all we’re having financial issues
@airway1 Okay so you have 26% and 30% for 2/3 schools you mentioned. You said 40% not 3 hours ago though.
Do you think people should be deciding on colleges based on that 10% or so acceptance rate difference given that the schools have improved in stride with their movements up the rankings? The point that people are arguing to you is that this acceptance rate numbers issue is far from what should be focused on in the current landscape of higher education. And more than that, most are aware of it. US News could very easily make this change, but they have chosen not to. US News has a pretty bad track record but it hasn’t stopped the general public from using them.
@PengsPhils I’m estimating without taking into account yields… BU history with yields is at 20% I did not take that into account… and they have shrunk their freshman class…
I’m using schools that don’t game example being Syracuse and GWU… those two schools have always been BU’s competition. Plus we are not taking into account their other strategy “guaranteed admission” to transfers… if everything taken account I’m betting they are over 40%
USNews no longer uses the acceptance rate in its rankings formula. Even when it did it was weighted at 1.5% of the overall score. It was never a major factor in the rankings but it seems to have stuck in the minds of some that the lower the acceptance rate the more "exclusive’ the school is.
Regardless of whether it is a direct factor in rankings, a lower acceptance rate indicates increased interest and thus the ability to be more selective. More selective hopefully means better students.
@airway1 Syracuse and GW don’t “game”? They both have pretty big spring admissions programs. Syracuse also admits students in an sends them abroad first semester through their Discovery program. No idea how large their transfer programs are. Youve already mentioned GW falsifying scores reported into USNews
https://www.syracuse.edu/academics/study-abroad/first-semester-programs/
The Syracuse Discovery program is 50 kids. NU.in is 1000. Call it spring admission or include the NU.in kids in the fall numbers. It’s hard for me not to think it’s their way of numbers management. This whole block of kids is excluded from their stats. In addition, the non-refundable deposit for NU.in is $1200, which just seems punitive to me. The more I find out about the program, the more I don’t like it.
http://dailyorange.com/2018/02/discovery-students-adjust-life-su-spending-1st-semester-abroad/
I guess Northeastern is just supposed to leave dorm rooms empty when a large number of students leave campus to begin their co-ops each January. The co-op program creates vacancies that would not be filled by just accepting January transfers or delayed enrollments. It is simply a business model that is different than most colleges, because the co-op program is different than most colleges.