So does anyone know if/where one can find acceptance rates by test scores, particularly the ACT? I’ve seen some that are like 20-25, 26-30, and 30-36 with acceptance rates for each of those ranges, but I can’t find anything like that particularly for, say, 33, 34, 35, 36. The CDSs don’t have that information, and I’m not really sure what to Google to find it because usually I’m redirected so some chance threads. My other thought is that schools simply do not release that information because it could reveal things they don’t want revealed (i.e. significantly higher acc. rates for perfect scorers, etc).
You can’t find that, college do not release it. You can make assumptions from the ranges, though. If the 25-75% range is 26-30, for example, you can assume that a 28 falls at the 50% and if your score is at that level or above, you might consider it a match IF it doesn’t also have a really low acceptance rate.
The OP is saying that the Common Data Set (CDS) only shows ranges, and they are correct. They show the ranges sliced and diced a couple of ways, but it does not have the granularity they seek. But everyone else is in the same boat in terms of trying to analyze the information available.
May be of help to you. The topic I was interested was if there truly is a hurdle ACT/SAT score for each school, even Selective schools. Once you reach that score, scoring higher doesn’t make a big difference in your chances of acceptance to that school. While data was, and I assume, is still somewhat hard to find, I thought there was enough directional data to see a likely answer. You will see there was a lot of debate about the amount of data available, correlation of other factors that affect holistic admissions, etc. I think it would be very interesting data to see in the CDS but I am assuming that most schools would feel disclosure of that type of data would not be in their best interests for at least a few reasons.
At the time, I did find a number of selective schools that published acceptance stats by gradations of test scores including Amherst, Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Dartmouth, Emory, Lehigh, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Wellesly. Anything I found was published right on their site. The data that was available was usually reported in the larger groupings you mentioned.
The Stanford numbers seem to show % of the class while P and B show percent of applicants admitted. What stands out isn’t that, hey, x % with my scores got in, but how many with the strongest stats still get rejected.
This ranking is essentially a listing of schools by ACT/SAT order: “The 610 Smartest Colleges,” Business Insider. In combination with other sources, it may be useful to you.