@BrehMement42 The numbers that @InterLoki presented are for admitted students (not enrolled), both for Amherst and Wesleyan.
https://www.amherst.edu/admission/apply/firstyear/enrollment
It seems the two schools admit almost identical classes from a standardized testing perspective, but Amherst experiences slightly less of a drop off than Wesleyan when comparing admitted to enrolled student scores.
@smartalic34 oh, that’s really interesting
@Unattswim56 I’m pretty sure, yeah I was surprised as well. Based on last years data on the Wes website, the median sat scores of the admitted students was 750/780 (around 1530), and based on the CDS data the 75th percentile of the enrolled students’ sat score was 740/770 (around 1510) for the same year.
This means that 1093 students with a sat score of >= 1530 were admitted, but only 193 students with a sat score of >= 1510. That means that admitted students whose sat score lie in the range 1510-1600 had a yield rate of <17.7%, which I find extremely surprising.
(ps the numbers may be wrong, over here https://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/apply/classprofile.html they say the admitted class had a median sat score of 730/760, but here https://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2019/04/03/following-record-applications-wesleyan-admits-historically-diverse-class-of-2023/ it says 750/780)
A similar pattern is going to be present for almost every school - the degree of difference between admitted and enrolled student profiles will vary based on perceived prestige/attractiveness of the school and financia resources, so the top universities/Ivies and top LACs will have less of a drop off than their less prestigious counterparts.
^Merit aid and ability to discount tuition and fees for otherwise upper-middle-class families are huge confounding factors.
@circuitrider Should have specified that I meant within a broad peer group (i.e. Wesleyan versus other elite LACs/private universities or Ohio State versus other large public schools).
@BrehMement42: Note that the links you provided in reply #22 refer to different class years (2024 and 2023, respectively), which would seem to resolve your uncertainty regarding the figures.
Several extremely selective colleges have said they will be “test optional” for the class or 2025 and that applicants who submit no standardized test scores “will not be disadvantaged.” Wesleyan does not say this but several colleges that attract similar applicants (including Brown, Yale and UVA) have used these or similar words.
If a “test optional” college does not say that applicants who submit no scores “will not be disadvantaged,” does that mean something different? Does it mean that the applicants who opt not to submit scores probably will be at a disadvantage? Or that they will be at a disadvantage unless they have a good excuse for not submitting scores?
Amherst, Pomona and Wesleyan are among the many colleges that have made submission of standardized test scores optional withlyout claiming not to hold that option against applicants who choose it. Is that sort of like giving someone the “option” of writing “I don’t really want to get in to your college” on the application form?
For what it is worth, Wesleyan in their Admissions FAQs notes the following:
If I don’t send my scores, will it count against me? Will there be an assumption that a student who hasn’t submitted their scores has ‘low’ scores?
No and no. Wesleyan believes students should have the power to decide how best to present themselves to the admission committee and whether—or not—their standardized test results accurately reflect their academic ability and potential. If scores are present in the application, we will consider them, and if they are not included, then we will not factor them into our admission decision.
In an additional Q&A, they offer the following advice:
How do you gauge if a student’s scores will be competitive (and whether they should submit them or not)?
If your scores fall below the 25th percentile of those Wesleyan typically admits (see profile here), your scores are unlikely to make you a more competitive applicant to Wesleyan.
The Wesleyan profile of admits indicates the 25th percentile of those submitting test scores is as follows: 33 ACT, 720 SAT ERW, 730 SAT M.
My son applied this year and did not submit scores because his verbal fell short of the 25th percentile threshold. He was waitlisted. He will be attending Bowdoin where he did submit his test scores (along with every other test-optional college he applied to).
Did I correctly read that your son submitted test scores to all of the test optional colleges he applied to except Wesleyan? What was the thinking behind that, out of curiosity? Thanks for your comment.
@InterLoki - Are you a rising senior? I did not see where else you applied this year.
Wesleyan was the only test-optional school he applied to where they were explicit that if his SAT scores fell below a certain threshold it might hurt his application (or at least not help). His math score was high by their standards, but his verbal fell below their 25th percentile (per the above referenced profile of admits submitting test scores). His total SAT score was pretty good…above the estimated average of freshmen who eventually enroll at all of these top-tier test-optional liberal-arts colleges (based on their respective common data sets). His grades were particularly strong and his ECs very good, so the assumption was it was better to play it safe at Wesleyan and not submit test scores. He later wondered whether he should have put them in.
^That might have been a miscommunication. I can’t imagine an admissions officer discouraging an applicant whose combined scores - while lopsided - nevertheless matched or exceeded the average combined scores of incoming frosh, from submitting those scores. OTOH, I don’t think it would have made a material difference in the outcome. Wesleyan received over 3,000 more applications than Bowdoin did this year; that’s 3,000 more people the adcom had to evaluate. Anything could have happened.
Based on the wording in reply #28, Wesleyan seems to be saying (partly because of the plural scores) that a 1450 SAT, or higher, in any underlying combination, would serve to enhance an application compared to a non-submission. For mathematical reasons, I’d recommend students consider submitting a 1440 score as well.
Has anybody seen any statistics (such as they are) for the class of 2025?
Some class of 2025 stats are now on the Wesleyan website. It looks like Wesleyan accepted a higher percentage of applicants for fall of 2021 compared to last year. I’m guessing this is because there’s more competition among colleges for applicants with high grades but low test scores. In other words, applicants who wanted to apply only or mostly to test optional colleges had more choices this year. The stats on the website don’t actually talk much about applicants who didn’t submit scores.
It also looks like Early Decision acceptances were up.
Not sure how you are interpreting the Class Profile stats? There were more applications this year and Wesleyan has (so far) accepted fewer students. Last year’s acceptance rate was 20% and this year’s will probably settle around 20% by the end of summer melt:
https://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/apply/classprofile.html
My mistake. I had looked up the stats using google and thought that last year’s number was a little over 16 percent. That number was actually the 2019 number, I think.
I do wonder whether the new prevalence of test optional policies at NESCAC colleges and small colleges nationwide will affect Wesleyan.