Acceptance rates at highly selective national universities versus LAC's - domestic vs international

[Anonymous]

I'm curious about something I haven't heard discussed much here or elsewhere - I noticed that total acceptance rates are not always what they appear to be if you're looking at SLAC's as a domestic applicant, whereas the total acceptance rate is roughly the same as the domestic acceptance rate at top national universities. I wonder whether this pattern holds true at the other SLAC's, but most of them do not make it available (Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore, Middlebury, for example). Anyone know more about this?

Here's an example for universities and SLAC's that do report this (calculated from 2024-2025 CDS, rounded to nearest whole percent).

Princeton:
Total acceptance rate: 5%
Domestic: 5%
International: 2%

Vanderbilt:
Total acceptance rate: 6%
Domestic: 6%
International: 4%

Johns Hopkins:
Total acceptance rate: 6%
Domestic: 7%
International: 1%

Amherst:
Total acceptance rate: 9%
Domestic: 14%
International: 3%

Bowdoin:
Total acceptance rate: 7%
Domestic: 11%
International: 1%

[Anonymous]

From what I understand there are several factors that contribute to this: the colleges have less awareness of foreign high schools so they can't assess preparedness; self assessment of English fluency is overstated by applicants; it is difficult to access standardized tests/in the past cheating on standardized tests by international applicants has been an issue and only a small number of schools are need blind for international students.

[Anonymous]

I think the premise is flawed. All of the schools have fairly similar, very low percentages for international students. I think OP is trying to correlate those to the overall or domestic acceptance rate, but that’s not how it works. Obviously, the higher the overall acceptance rate, the greater the difference will be between that and the international rate, but that’s just a mathematical side effect of having a 1-4% admit rate for internationals and a greater variation in general admit rate between, say, Princeton and Amherst.

[Anonymous]

lol poster gives a list "example" of "highly selective" schools and posts acceptance rates. 4 of which the the poster listed do Early Decision Binding Admissions. Can't make it up.

[Anonymous]

This is not hard to figure out. Top schools cap enrollment for internationals. I'm not sure what op is trying to figure out.

[Anonymous]

Op, this is discussed all the time on reddit. Are you surprised about what you are finding?

Notice that the few schools that.meet full need for internationals tend to have an even lower acceptance rate for internationals than need aware ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about something I haven't heard discussed much here or elsewhere - I noticed that total acceptance rates are not always what they appear to be if you're looking at SLAC's as a domestic applicant, whereas the total acceptance rate is roughly the same as the domestic acceptance rate at top national universities. I wonder whether this pattern holds true at the other SLAC's, but most of them do not make it available (Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore, Middlebury, for example). Anyone know more about this?

Here's an example for universities and SLAC's that do report this (calculated from 2024-2025 CDS, rounded to nearest whole percent).

Princeton:
Total acceptance rate: 5%
Domestic: 5%
International: 2%

Vanderbilt:
Total acceptance rate: 6%
Domestic: 6%
International: 4%

Johns Hopkins:
Total acceptance rate: 6%
Domestic: 7%
International: 1%

Amherst:
Total acceptance rate: 9%
Domestic: 14%
International: 3%

Bowdoin:
Total acceptance rate: 7%
Domestic: 11%
International: 1%

Wow, never saw this stat before. Vanderbilt does like their $$$$$$.
We were on a tour a year ago with a crowd of accepted students from abroad who were literally dripping in logos and diamonds.
It was something.

[Anonymous]

I wish there was some breakdown of this data as it applies to ED to get a more realistic sense of odds. My understanding is that a lot of international applications at meets need schools come in ED. But those students are often denied/deferred, which skews the admit rates. It would be interesting to see domestic ED admit rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish there was some breakdown of this data as it applies to ED to get a more realistic sense of odds. My understanding is that a lot of international applications at meets need schools come in ED. But those students are often denied/deferred, which skews the admit rates. It would be interesting to see domestic ED admit rates.

ED schools should never be considered when evaluating based on acceptance rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish there was some breakdown of this data as it applies to ED to get a more realistic sense of odds. My understanding is that a lot of international applications at meets need schools come in ED. But those students are often denied/deferred, which skews the admit rates. It would be interesting to see domestic ED admit rates.

ED schools should never be considered when evaluating based on acceptance rates.

About 200 colleges and universities offer early decision, among them the most selective and most popular schools.

[Anonymous]

What I found interesting is that while all of these schools have similarly low acceptance rates for internationals, international applications comprise a much high percentage of total applications at the SLAC's above than at the universities, so they make the total acceptance rate look different than what it actually may be for domestic applicants. Sure, I'm aware of the ED game, but we don't have access to that data by domestic/international that I know of.

Princeton applicants:
Domestic: 76%
International: 24%

Amherst applicants:
Domestic: 58%
International: 41%

[Anonymous]

There are some smaller colleges (ahem Colby) that use international students to inflate their stats to make the school seem more competitive.

First they make the application free, and don't require any supplementals, so applying is simply clicking a checkbox on Common App. Then they promise to meet 100% need for international students. Finally they market heavily in Asia. That pumps tens of thousands of applications into the system, but they still only accept the same small set of 100-200 international students each year.

Admissions rate goes from 30% to 7% on the backs of international students who are just grabbing a raffle ticket. USNews and parents are now so impressed how competitive the school has become.

There is a reason why Colby doesn't generate a CDS. Other SLACs play this game as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some smaller colleges (ahem Colby) that use international students to inflate their stats to make the school seem more competitive.

First they make the application free, and don't require any supplementals, so applying is simply clicking a checkbox on Common App. Then they promise to meet 100% need for international students. Finally they market heavily in Asia. That pumps tens of thousands of applications into the system, but they still only accept the same small set of 100-200 international students each year.

Admissions rate goes from 30% to 7% on the backs of international students who are just grabbing a raffle ticket. USNews and parents are now so impressed how competitive the school has become.

There is a reason why Colby doesn't generate a CDS. Other SLACs play this game as well.

Interesting. I really wish more schools would report this information.

[Anonymous]

Int’l difference at Amherst and Bowdoin has to be mitigated for their 40% athlete 1:1 admits (vast majority are domestic).