<p>How about this list: those schools in which the 25th percentile for both CR and M are 700 or above:</p>
<p>CA 2 91 700 790 760 800 California Institute of Technology
MO 2 61 700 770 720 790 Washington University in St Louis
MA 2 89 700 800 710 790 Harvard University
NJ 2 89 700 790 710 800 Princeton University
NY 2 90 700 780 700 790 Columbia University in the City of New York
IL 2 74 700 780 700 790 University of Chicago
CT 2 85 700 790 700 800 Yale University</p>
<p>Not too surprising, but I expected to see a few of the LACs on that list as well.</p>
<p>Or this one: those schools in which the 75th percentile for both CR and M is 770 or above:
CA 2 91 700 790 760 800 California Institute of Technology
CA 2 94 680 770 740 800 Harvey Mudd College
MA 2 86 670 770 740 800 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MO 2 61 700 770 720 790 Washington University in St Louis
MA 2 89 700 800 710 790 Harvard University
NJ 2 89 700 790 710 800 Princeton University
TN 2 46 690 770 710 790 Vanderbilt University
NY 2 90 700 780 700 790 Columbia University in the City of New York
CA 2 88 680 780 700 790 Stanford University
IL 2 74 700 780 700 790 University of Chicago
CT 2 85 700 790 700 800 Yale University
NH 2 71 670 780 680 780 Dartmouth College
PA 2 85 680 780 670 770 Swarthmore College</p>
<p>As for Northeastern, their selectivity has gotten much higher as well so they’re not cooking their books. I think an increasing number of families are being drawn to the coop program given the skyrocketing cost of college so confidence in landing a job after graduation to pay off those student loans is higher. NU has been ahead of that curve for decades but have been overshadowed by their more prestigious neighbors in Harvard, MIT, BC, BU, and Tufts.</p>
<p>At least for me (2340 SAT), I was considering Northeastern because they offered a full-tuition scholarship (for NMFs), an easy-to-attain honor’s program (top 10% of applicant pool), and guaranteed housing. My total COA would have been 34k for four years, which was tempting. They also added a perk later on by inviting me to a pilot program in which a few CAS majors could earn a master’s degree from NU with one extra year (depending on the number of coops you choose to do).</p>
<p>Their FA is still relatively weak in comparison to BC, but they have made tremendous leaps as of late. I think they went from around 100 in USN to around 53, although adjustments for six-year graduation rates may have something to do with this. Their applicant pool was around 50,000 (someone should check me on that) this year, and their acceptance rate was around 35%. I think Princeton Review rated their career services #1 in the country, although I would have to check that.</p>
<p>Consequently, I am not surprised that their scores are so high. It will be interesting to see the disparity between admitted and enrolled SAT scores…</p>
<p>Hunt-Thanks for picking out those super-schools. They evidently attract students who are geniuses on both the left and right side of the brain.</p>
<p>Very interesting about Northeastern collegedadnh and JuniorMint. Northeastern isn’t the only school with coop program, though. What are some other schools with coop? I’d like to check them out. I don’t think all coop schools have made such a leap. There must be more going on at Northeastern than coop and you have pointed out some of the other factors. It will be interesting to see if the grad rate and other quality indicators at Northeastern also increase. Does Northeastern have a decent campus? I bet the access to Boston doesn’t hurt.</p>
<p>I think Drexel and RIT have large co-op programs… Drexel has a very large applicant pool (and a late application deadline), but their yield is miserable. I’m not sure about RIT.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Others have talked about this before, but the co-op program messes with graduation rates and, in a small way, NU’s ranking, although the student body quality will certainly improve. I predict that Northeastern should be able to break the top fifty in two or three years.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I prefer it much more than BU’s, although I like BC’s more. It is very green, and the buildings are either very modern (the technology is quite nice) or brick. It isn’t spread out as much as BU’s, but it isn’t quite the enclave that BC is.</p>
<p>RIT has coop but its SATs have remained virtually unchanged over 10 years and I don’t thing their US News ranking has changed. Must be something else about Northeastern…</p>
<p>Here are some schools that have shown large increases in SAT scores over the past 10 years. 2002-03 to 2012-13</p>
<p>CR 25th increase, CR 75th increase. Math 25th increase, Math 75th increase, school name</p>
<p>120 110 120 110 Northeastern University
70 70 90 80 CUNY Bernard M Baruch College
20 30 70 60 Ohio State University-Main Campus
50 60 70 60 University of Miami
80 70 70 70 Vanderbilt University
50 40 60 40 University of South Carolina-Columbia
40 40 60 50 Fordham University
40 60 60 50 University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus
50 30 50 40 University of Denver
30 10 50 30 University of Massachusetts Amherst
30 40 50 50 University of Connecticut
30 20 50 40 Brigham Young University-Provo
10 20 50 30 New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
20 30 50 0 Pitzer College
50 50 50 40 Southern Methodist University
30 50 50 50 Stony Brook University
40 30 50 40 University of Chicago
60 40 50 40 Washington University in St Louis
40 30 40 40 Auburn University
20 20 40 20 Drake University
30 30 40 30 Hofstra University
40 40 40 40 University of North Carolina Wilmington
40 30 40 40 Loyola Marymount University
20 10 40 20 SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
50 70 40 10 Denison University
40 40 40 30 Santa Clara University
30 30 40 30 The University of Texas at Dallas
30 30 40 30 United States Naval Academy
10 30 40 30 Polytechnic Institute of New York University
50 40 40 40 Hamilton College
40 20 40 30 University of California-Berkeley
40 30 40 40 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
60 50 40 40 Tufts University
40 30 40 30 Northwestern University
20 10 40 20 Rice University</p>
<p>^^^ About half of the above ascendant schools are public, three are SUNY/CUNY.
Is it the economy? Kind of surprised by SUNY ESF because it is such a specialty school. On the other hand, it is next to Syracuse campus and Carrier Dome.</p>
<p>The large increase in admissions stats at Northeastern as compared to schools they directly compete with (BC, BU, GW, NYU) is due in large part to very generous merit aid. They are able to grab students who are well above the average admit’s stats. I believe they are the highest ranked school that still gives out full tuition scholarships for National Merit Finalists and thus pulled in more (103) than Tufts (49) , BU (39) , and BC (11) combined for the last reported year. Their need-based aid, however, I think is behind most of these schools. That said some of those schools offer no merit aid (BC). It will be interesting to see when NU gets to the point that it does not become advantageous to offer the NMF full scholarships anymore.</p>
<p>I wonder if it is financially advantageous for a school to become more selective. On the one hand, your ranking increases, you become more attractive to top students, you have higher graduation rates (although you can replace drop-outs with transfer students), reputation is enhanced, you might attract wealthier students who require less financial aid, and so on. On the other hand, there is great competition for the best students who might require merit aid, enrollment might shrink, and so on. The vast majority of students are near the middle. There might be financial advantages to attracting near-average students.</p>
<p>While other schools offer large coop programs (Drexel, Cincinnati, RPI, RIT) only Northeastern has BOSTON. Combine coop and Boston and you have a very strong marketing card.</p>
<p>In a few years, we should see the graduation rates go down of the SAT descending schools and the graduation rates of the SAT ascendant schools go up. I think the correlation between average SAT and graduation rate is about + .8 or + .9. It would be interesting to know the story behind the SAT changers.</p>
<p>barrons-
I agree that financial struggles are diabolical in the ways they impede education. We need more affordable college education.
And, poverty can be a vicious cycle from generation to generation because of the lack of education. Financial struggles can run in families.</p>
<p>But, is low income a cause or an effect of poor academic achievement (measured by the SATs)? It is a “chicken or egg” question.</p>
<p>Most agree it is clear that income and college prep success are substitutes for each other. That is enough to make any decisions so based questionable. It’s the old born on third base joke. And it comes way before college prices even matter. I don’t have the answers but glorifying the status quo–tacky.</p>
<p>I am no fan of the status quo, barrons. Where did you get that idea? I’d like to intervene early in their lives so students would get higher SAT scores and be more likely to get higher grades and graduate. Students from low income families are at a disadvantage because of their financial challenges but, with supportive parents, they will be motivated to learn and succeed to the best of their abilities.</p>
<p>barrons, I would if the data were available. Any idea what the correlation is between income ranges and college graduation rates? Anybody? I’ll google it. Now I’m curious.</p>