Typo or Dramatic Change in Admissions Policies?

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>According to the third page of this <a href="http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/documents/73-fact_sheet_2011-2012.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/documents/73-fact_sheet_2011-2012.pdf&lt;/a> Caltech's class of 2015 is 16% underrepresented students. According to College Board data College</a> Search - California Institute of Technology - Caltech - At a Glance for the previous year 7% of the first year class was underrepresented. Given that the 7% seems more in line with what Caltech has been historically it seems like the 16% data is either typo or there has been some sort shift in admissions policies. Perhaps someone at Caltech can shed some light on the situation.</p>

2

<p>Hmm looks like you are right</p>

<p>if the fact sheet is correct, there has been a dramatic change in admissions policies for 2011-12. For example SAT Math score middle 50% is now 760-780 instead of 770-800. It appears that bar is being lowered.</p>

<p>Aca demic Achievement
Exam Middle 50%
SAT 2200–2340
SAT CR 700–790
SAT Math 760–780
SAT Writing 700–790
ACT Composite 33–35
ACT Math 34–36
ACT English 33–35</p>

<p>Say it ain’t so</p>

3

<p>I would imagine the SAT Math 75th percentile is a typo as it’s hard to belive the 75th percentile for math would be lower than the 75th percentiles for reading and writing. Additionally, 760-780 would be a very narrow range for 50% of SAT math scores. Even more strangely the 75th percentile SAT composite scores have gone up which would make it quite unlikely there was a large drop in SAT math scores unless there was a very, very major change in policy.</p>

4

<p>Upon further investigation it seems that part of the difference stems from Caltech treating the date in different ways than the College Board. Although the above posted fact sheet had no explanation for data categories the office of the register page [Office</a> of the Registrar - California Institute of Technology](<a href=“http://www.registrar.caltech.edu/statistics.htm]Office”>http://www.registrar.caltech.edu/statistics.htm) indicates that Caltech includes Pacific Islanders and mixed-race people with at least 1 part underrepresented miniority in its statistics. Comparing the College Board’s datahttp://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?match=true&collegeId=4214&searchType=college&type=qfs&word=caltech for last year’s freshmen class and Caltech’s data [Office</a> of the Registrar - California Institute of Technology](<a href=“http://web.archive.org/web/20110717002630/http://www.registrar.caltech.edu/statistics.htm]Office”>Office of the Registrar - California Institute of Technology) for total enrollment during the 2010-11 school year it seems like roughly half of the difference comes from different presentation of the data. As Caltech current data [Office</a> of the Registrar - California Institute of Technology](<a href=“http://www.registrar.caltech.edu/statistics.htm]Office”>http://www.registrar.caltech.edu/statistics.htm) for total enrollment is 11% URM it seems the other half is probably just better recruitment of URMs and random fluctations due to Caltech’s small size than a major shift in admissions policies.</p>

<p>The part about the 75th percentile for SAT math being 780 is still just a typo.</p>