<p>I am not asking this question to pick a fight with folks from any other college. I just wonder, and hope that someone with a good eye for numbers can explain to me the following:</p>
<p>The common data set information for both Bama and Auburn have similar stats for gpa and SAT/ACT with regard to how accepted students stats fall between 25th percentile- 75% percentile. However, Bama’s acceptance rate is about 44% and Auburn’s is about 77%. Do lower stats people just not apply to Auburn?</p>
<p>My daughter loves Bama and it is her one and only. However, I believe that she does need backups- that’s just life. You don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. I’m confident she’ll be accepted to Bama- but still. She wants to leave our home state and loves the Southern hospitality we encountered when we visited Bama. However, we are trying to figure out if Auburn is a very safe backup (with that 77% acceptance rate I would think so) or does an applicant stand the same chance of being accepted/rejected as they do at Bama?</p>
<p>Thanks n advance for any clarification. :)</p>
<p>In general, a school with higher acceptance rates have lower admissions standards. From our research, seems like UA and Aubrun have several significant differences. For us, the two that really stand out are the very generous merit offers from UA and the large # of OOS students at UA.</p>
<p>UA has a lot more people apply than AU – and all those additional applicant’s stats may not measure up to the current UA standard, hence a noticable difference in admission percentages. And, Auburn generally sees a certain amount of “self-selection” going on – it has programs that are different than UA (e.g. agricultural sciences; pharmacy; certain engineering programs like wireless, textile/materials; architecture etc.). Their numbers reflect demographics that are fewer, but more specific to the offerings of the school.</p>
<p>In fairness, there is truth to what audellmom just wrote. I believe fewer lower stats students apply to AU, but UA no longer accepts just anyone with a 21 or higher ACT. Auburn also needs a higher acceptance rate, cause its yield (the percentage of approved applicants who actually enroll), for whatever reason, is much lower than that of UA.</p>