NYT: Up to date admissions data from colleges across the country

[bclintonk]

<p>

@bluebayou

IMO, a private college with an admit rate above 50% just ain’t that hard to get into, i.e., “safety”, and I don’t need it’s yield to yield additional information.

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@bclintonk

I will grant that a private college or university with a high admit rate is likely (almost certain?) to be viewed as a “safety” by some substantial number of applicants.

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<p>I want to amend my previous statement just a bit. Some private schools with a specialized appeal to certain categories of students—e.g., schools with a particular religious orientation—may have a relatively high admit rate but nonetheless most of their applicant pool may make it their first choice, i.e., not a “safety.”</p>

<p>An example would be BYU, where for 2008:
Applicants: 10,081
Accepted: 6,983
Admit rate: 69.3%
Freshmen enrolling: 5,440
Yield: 77.9%</p>

<p>My strong suspicion is that a large fraction of those applying to, accepted at, and enrolling in Brigham Young are Mormons, and that notwithstanding BYU’s high acceptance rate a very large fraction of those Mormon applicants make BYU their first-choice school and are happy to enroll when offered admission. The data don’t conclusively prove that, of course, but they are strongly suggestive. So I think we need to be careful in assuming even that all high-admit-rate private universities are widely viewed as “safeties” by a large fraction of their respective applicant pools. It depends on the school, and on the applicant pool. Once again, admit rate plus yield tells us more than either figure alone.</p>

[sefago]

<p>Interesting . . . UChicago/Northwestern/UPenn have become extremely selective than b4. When I applied to college these schools had acceptances >20 %</p>

[bluebayou]

<p>

notwithstanding BYU’s high acceptance rate a very large fraction of those Mormon applicants make BYU their first-choice school…

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<p>Actually, it can be both – a ‘first’ choice and a safety, or at least it was for one of our HS seniors a year or so ago. Apllied and accepted to an Ivy, but at the same time knew that based on gpa, BYU was a full ride. If I recall, he only applied to a couple of UC’s in addition to the one Ivy just in case he changed his mind in April from the Nov app deadline. Took the full ride, and several local scholarships (which he turned into a Corvette.)</p>

<p>But he knew, as I posted, BYU was not that hard to get into.</p>

[kayakmom]

<p>i had no idea so many tens of thousands of kids applied to the same schools…and were rejected. i guess i can understand now the frenzy of college admissions. relatively hook-less white males from the east coast in my family so we can’t expect much.</p>

[nickel1951]

<p>The nice way of saying that Tulane is desperately trying to fill it’s slots without having to admit to the world that it’s admission criteria are dropping. The gooseing of the applicants is really just the standard way the colleges that are having trouble attracting enough students covers up the fact that they are really taking many more applicants then they should. Generally this “increase” in applicants is the reslut of a “new” program of free applications, early action admissions policy, and/or dropping of the requirement for SAT or ACT scores. Or all of the above. Does anyone really think Tulane could otherwise attract 60% more applications than Harvard University, which has a free tuition for all applicants accepted with parental income under $150,000?</p>

[fallenchemist]

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@nickel1951

The nice way of saying that Tulane is desperately trying to fill it’s slots without having to admit to the world that it’s admission criteria are dropping. The gooseing of the applicants is really just the standard way the colleges that are having trouble attracting enough students covers up the fact that they are really taking many more applicants then they should. Generally this “increase” in applicants is the reslut of a “new” program of free applications, early action admissions policy, and/or dropping of the requirement for SAT or ACT scores. Or all of the above. Does anyone really think Tulane could otherwise attract 60% more applications than Harvard University, which has a free tuition for all applicants accepted with parental income under $150,000?

Wow, that really has to be one of the most uninformed posts I have seen in some time. Facts are not even correct, Tulane has higher admission criteria than in the past, with the incoming class having a higher average SAT score and more students in the top 10% of their class than ever. This has been true 3 years in a row. In fact, the average SAT at Tulane is over 100 points higher than a decade ago, while the national average has remained steady or even dropped a few points. And yes, let’s all diss a school for actually not charging for applications. Amazing how people can turn that into a bad thing. BTW, they are so desperate to fill slots that the incoming class is actually 100-200 students more than they wanted. A normal sized class is about 1500-1550, this year will see a class of 1650-1700.</p>

<p>Your statement about Harvard

@nickel1951

…Harvard University, which has a free tuition for all applicants accepted with parental income under $150,000

is factually incorrect also. From the Harvard website:

Since 2006, students from families with incomes less than $60,000 who are accepted to Harvard under our regular admissions policies have no expected parent contribution for their education. Additionally, families with incomes between $60,000 and $80,000 have seen their expected parent contributions significantly reduced. Financial aid is available to all students based on assessed need. Families with incomes up to $180,000 have an average expected parent contribution of 10 percent or less of their income and, as we continue to take individual circumstances into consideration in our assessment of financial need, many families in even higher income brackets also receive substantive financial aid.

So the number is $60,000 (btw, at Tulane it is $75,000), and between $80,000 and $180,000 you are essentially expected to contribute 10% of your income. They can dress up the language any way they want, that is in fact what they charge virtually every time for incomes in that range, barring something quite unusual.</p>

<p>As far as attracting 60% more applications that Harvard, yes the free app is a big factor, as is aggressive recruiting of higher level students, but there is also a lot of self screening for a Harvard app. After all, no one would argue that there are not a lot more students qualified to go to Tulane than Harvard, so the pool of possible students is larger. BTW, the free app started back in 2002. The huge increase in apps didn’t start until 2007, and has been 34,000 then 40,000 then 44,000 for the last three years. The more likely explanation is that a lot of students got attracted to the idea of rebuilding New Orleans, Tulane offered good packages and the word got out, and in general it is absolutely a school on the rise. It was recognized, through its President, by both the Carnegie Foundation (one of only four) and by Time Magazine as a top 10 college President, which reflects very much on the school itself.</p>

<p>I am not sure what your problem is, but try and get at least a few facts right. It makes discussion more meaningful.</p>

[konami]

<p>hey where is umich, i did not come up with it ?
any idea?</p>

[massgirl92]

<p>i’m questioning the accuracy of this because i was at duke a couple of weeks ago and they said the acceptance rate for the class of 2014 was 14.8%</p>

[xiggi]

<p>

i’m questioning the accuracy of this because i was at duke a couple of weeks ago and they said the acceptance rate for the class of 2014 was 14.8%

</p>

<p>Well, you are wise to questioning the accuracy of what “they” tell you at Duke. As what “they” tell you at Duke should always be taken with a large grain of sea salt. </p>

<p>Dropping the sarcasm, it’s pretty easy to explain. Duke, as many schools, like to broadcast the admission rate of April/May which MIGHT have been 14.8% AND obfuscate the real acceptance rate that accounts for waitlisted admits and possible summer melt. </p>

<p>No matter what they do, the acceptance rate at Duke will NOT be below 15%. And that is something you can bank on!</p>

[bluedog]

<p>

Well, you are wise to questioning the accuracy of what “they” tell you at Duke. As what “they” tell you at Duke should always be taken with a large grain of sea salt.</p>

<p>Dropping the sarcasm, it’s pretty easy to explain. Duke, as many schools, like to broadcast the admission rate of April/May which MIGHT have been 14.8% AND obfuscate the real acceptance rate that accounts for waitlisted admits and possible summer melt.</p>

<p>No matter what they do, the acceptance rate at Duke will NOT be below 15%. And that is something you can bank on!

</p>

<p>The difference between a 14.8% and 16% acceptance rate is so huge and significant that I now would like to re-classify Duke as a third-rate institution. I’m sure Duke intentionally obfuscate’s their numbers since a 14.8% rate sounds soooo much more impressive than a whopping 16%. Seriously, a 1% difference in acceptance rate does not affect anything … But yeah, it’s certainly plausible that the 14.8% was before waitlist numbers were in.</p>

[monydad]

<p>I recall reading they had accepted 200 from their waitlist, as of that date…</p>