Hi, so Villanova is probably one of the schools I will apply to this fall. I noticed that their acceptance rate is 40-45% which isn’t super selective, but selective nonetheless. I also noticed that the averages for their incoming class are very high. GPA around 3.9-4 on a 4.0 scale, SAT around 1400, most students are in the top 10% of their class. Nova isn’t one of my top choices as i’ve never toured it because I don’t have time to drive 7 hours south, so I’m just wondering how their acceptance rate is that high despite having averages that I consider very high?
And also on the topic of college admissions, St. Michael’s College in VT is one school i will apply to and I’ve received preferred student status as a Standout Student which lets me apply in a different manner than the Common App. I like St. Mike’s and i know it’s not really difficult to get into so I don’t know if this really helps with the admissions process or not.
Villanova’s acceptance rate felt dramatically last year. It is now less than 40% but not sure of the exact number.
They also added ED this year for the first time.
To answer your question a college might have a self selective crowd applying. For example any college that has supplemental essays usually gets less people applying. This however does not mean that they get worse student applying.
The 3.94 avg is weighted. Most of the Villanova students come from NJ, Pa and NY where weighted HS gpas are the norm. The unweighted avg gpa for enrolled freshman at Villanova was 3.68 as reported by the University on the common data set.
Villanova’s acceptance rate for Class of 2021 is 35.9%.
This is their best class ever.
Historically, Villanova has not had a very high yield. This means that the percentage of accepted students who decide to actually enroll at Villanova is low. In Fall 2016, for example, only 22% of accepted students (1,677 out of 7,514) actually enrolled (according to the latest Common Data Set). When yields are low, it’s generally necessary to accept a lot of applicants, to ensure that there are enough students that actually enroll.
You might then ask: “OK, but why does Villanova have a low yield?” We can only speculate, but one reason might be that Villanova has a smaller endowment than many peer institutions, and is not noted for particularly good financial aid.
Villanova is obviously an attractive school in many respects, and so many well-qualified students apply there. However, the final enrollment decision (for all but the wealthiest people) includes consideration of the financial aid offer. The low yield is consistent with the possibility that many of the accepted applicants get better offers from other schools.
That’s another factor that will affect yield. ED is a binding commitment, which means that if you are accepted ED, you have to attend. So the yield for ED is extremely high, typically around 95% (a few people usually find a way to break the ED commitment, typically for financial reasons). If a school admits a large percentage of the class by ED (and this is common now), that provides a nice boost to the average yield. Conversely, if a school doesn’t have ED (and Villanova apparently didn’t until this year), then the yield will be lower.