Last year Davidson put out a press release on the 2023 admits stats in March and published a full “class profile” and video on the Class of 2022 on their website in July. That profile is still the most recent on their site. As far back as I have tracked, they have never withheld publishing their class stats and profile before, so this year is an aberration.
For whatever reason, they don’t want to share their stats this year. Presumably they will come out by January when they publish the Common Data Set. It’s just curious why they are avoiding them until then.
Perhaps, they are want to have full waitlist or other situations resolved. The initial rates are a bit too low since the wait list info is not complete in the spring. Last year there was a bit of a difference, though not a big deal 18.7 vs 19.5.
Didn’t they get a couple hundred late application due to some tweet or something? I seem to remember something unusual happening.
@citivas Do most schools have their numbers available? I wonder what percent give that info before they post their CDS. Seems like many just publish it in a school newspaper or something local but I googled Davidson and came up short too.
There aren’t all that many schools with Class of 2023 Data out actually. We can guess, going the full gambit that they did not do well, to new personnel making policy changes I’ve noticed a number of top schools that have not yet released including Stanford, CalTech, Grinnell, Rochester to name s few
I suppose they are not obligated to share that info so why bother? Bowdoin was very quiet about its waitlist numbers. They don’t publish them on their CDS and no one seems to know if anyone even got off the waitlist this year. Pretty sure these schools have no obligation to give information by a certain date. Kenyon hasn’t had updated CDS’s for two years as far as I could find. I would imagine Davidson’s acceptance rates stayed the same or was lower. Maybe they don’t want to discourage kids from applying?
I can’t speak to most schools broadly, but I’ve been following the annual class statistics topic on this site for the last 5+ years and the strong majority of the schools typically tracked there have been released. More specifically, most (but not all) of Davidson’s LAC peers that I’ve tracked in that time have released. (Yeah, I always check the school paper’s as well, @homerdog )
That said, there’s no question fewer schools have released this year than historically. There was a very consistent pattern of behavior prior to this year and then a noticeable change this year. Which is part of what is driving my curiosity. Some people on the stats topic have speculated that schools like Stanford held back because they were sensitive to having been caught up in the Varsity Blues scandal and didn’t want any more media attention on their admissions right now. But it’s hard to imagine that this would be the reason schools like Davidson withheld results. They weren’t caught up in that at all.
Yeah, schools have never been obligated to put out press releases on their admit stats and publish class profiles. Yet most (in the highly selective cohort we’re discussing) typically have. There’s no question they have been bragging a little. The spin of the releases is always about how the stats are getting more competitive. So it’s not a question of whether they have to or why they should in the first place, but why they suddenly changed their previously consistent behavior this year.
There are a handful of (very selective) schools that do not make their CDS public. Insiders complain that there are several fields that have loose definitions, so the apples to apples data isn’t actually that. They assert that the resulting fruit bowl is misused by the “list-makers” who rank schools.
Most DO provide a fair amount of detail about their incoming classes on their websites where they control the narrative. But this also requires a certain amount of work on the college’s part. So maybe delays as well.
Honestly, with a school of Davidson’s calibre, I would not read much, or anything, into it.
Some schools–like one mentioned in post #6 above–have definite reasons to stop sharing declining stats, while others may not want to discourage future applicants by revealing a low rate of admission followed by no offers of admission to those on the waitlist. With respect to Davidson College, my best guess is that we shouldn’t read much into this as suggested by a previous post in this thread.
Yes, just saw a cute video they did on Class of 2023 – 18.1% acceptance and 50% yield. Record low acceptance and highest ever yield – breaking last year’s class for both indicators. (That said, both numbers were very close to last year’s.)
@merc81 – I don’t know answer. I would guess mid Atlantic stops at Maryland or Delaware and PA and farther north is Northeast.
@merc81 and @almostthere2018-- I was also curious about how Davidson categorizes Mid-Atlantic and Northeast States. I couldn’t figure it out from the website but I just looked at an admissions brochure, which has a geographic breakdown map. The Mid-Atlantic States are West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. The Northeast is Pennsylvania, New Jersey and everything above. This surprised me because I thought PA was Mid-Atlantic too.