[quote]
Harvard College, for example, offered admission to only 7.1 percent of the 27,462 high school seniors who applied or, put another way, it rejected 93 of every 100 applicants, many with extraordinary achievements, like a perfect score on one of the SAT exams. Yale College accepted 8.3 percent of its 22,813 applicants. Both rates were records.</p>
<p>Columbia College admitted 8.7 percent of its applicants, Brown University and Dartmouth College 13 percent, and Bowdoin College and Georgetown University 18 percent also records.
<p>Friend's daughter can't string two words together and got into Georgetown as an athlete. My daughter is a national merit scholar and didn't get into Grinnell. But I'm not bitter, not a bit.</p>
<p>Last year my NMF/scholar daughter, 4.73 w. GPA, with 35 ACT, 2290 SAT, 800 critical reading, Presidential Scholar candidate, 2-year newspaper editor, accomplished thespian at school and in community, with great references, essays, and volunteerism (YMCA u-6 soccer coach, Carnegie Literacy Center tutoring, etc.)--was turned down by Brown and wait-listed at Wash U. At the time, I felt blind-sided and furious. (She was far more philosophical about it.) A friend of hers with significantly lower grades, scores, and ECs, got in at Yale--as a first-generation college student. A great kid, with a hook that Yale seemed to want. ...</p>
<p>With a year to look back on this--and the fact that my daughter is now blissfully happy at Carleton--I have a somewhat better understanding of the process. It's a total crap-shoot, really. No matter how qualified a student is for a particular school, there are no guarantees--if he or she doesn't fit the needed demographic the school is looking for.</p>
<p>Now that I've graduated and joined the workforce I've realized what a great education is available from schools no one has ever heard of. My husband went to Montana Tech and my brother went to Albion College and got a much better education than anyone I know that went to an Ivy League or big state school. There are 5000 postsecondary institutions in the US. Do some research and find the one that is best for you. Do a search online (Petersons.com, Collegeboard.com) or talk to your high school counselor.</p>
<p>Columbia reporting its numbers by separating out the college is misleading, its not a comparative stat. All the top schools admit engineers at higher rate, its silly to exclude them. Columbia's overall rate, 10%, is still impressive, there's no need to mask it particularly when it comes to such widely published news coverage.</p>
<p>If this is the product of HS grads applying to 25% more schools, then I think there will be some interesting wait list activity ahead in the next couple of months. Some of the yield models may be too optimistic at schools lower in the pecking order (after the ivies and the schools just below the ivies) and could end up taking a greater number from the wait list.</p>
<p>i think part of the reason has to do with USNW rankings....loads of people just apply to all the top 15 or top 10 without ever visiting the campus.</p>
<p>These numbers are exacerbated by the fact that people like me plan to apply to 17 schools, because we think, what the hell, this way we will at least get 1 or 2.</p>
<p>^ya and that too...i think colleges need to make the admission system more transparent so that students at least have some idea of their chances</p>
<p>Especially for international students... A little embarrassing but honestly, that was how I picked my college-list (combined with graduate school rankings within my field of interest) when I was in HS.</p>
<p>Hence, as more international students apply, top 10-15 schools will receive more applicants (IMO).</p>
<p>The positive impact was watching seniors stay engaged, albeit stressed until April 1. The negative which is a big negative, are all those kids who would have had a reality check in December, are getting it now with no chance for a do-over. Maybe it is time for the likely/unlikely letter to make a complete comeback.</p>
<p>It seems so random! DS with 800/800/760, 5 SAT-II's over 700, 16 AP's, NMF/$2500 award winner, Presidential Scholar, #2 in class, plays nine musical instruments/composes, tutors, works, etc./etc./etc.; accepted to none of four Ivies.</p>
<p>However, in truth, none of these were truly the best fit for him, and he was accepted to six other schools, including his dream/top choice (MIT). It's so much more important to choose schools based on fit, not a published/popular list; maybe these adcoms do know what they're doing!</p>
<p>
[quote]
At Harvard, as at Yale, the applicant pool included an extraordinary number of academically gifted students. More than 2,500 of Harvard’s 27,462 applicants scored a perfect 800 on the SAT critical reading test, and 3,300 had 800 scores on the SAT math exam. More than 3,300 were ranked first in their high school class.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Harvard admitted 1948 students this year. So, in other words, Harvard had far more applicants with perfect SAT scores and/or ranked no. 1 in their class than it had spaces.</p>