Are most colleges lightly selective these days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we were helping DC put their college list together, it seemed like schools were either very selective or not very. It was hard to determine targets rather than likelies for my good but not superstar student.

Yes. Nowadays it seems like any school with a decent cohort of strong students either has a sub-10% admissions rate, or it’s admitting 70% plus and recruiting the high performers with merit discounts, honors colleges, and similar perks. The schools with in-between admissions rates are often smallish schools admitting a large percentage of the class test optional in early decision.

Well that’s a little incorrect…schools like Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, GA, Texas A&M…most of the schools ranked 30-100 are like 40%-60% admission rates (skewed towards instate admits) and they have lots of interest.

UGA should not be on this list.

That’s GA

tf is GA?

Georgia

[Anonymous]

My kid got direct admissions offers via College Board - not schools he’s interested in but still nice to not have to do much. One is Mizzou

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid got direct admissions offers via College Board - not schools he’s interested in but still nice to not have to do much. One is Mizzou

My child got into Iowa direct admit yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got direct admissions offers via College Board - not schools he’s interested in but still nice to not have to do much. One is Mizzou

My child got into Iowa direct admit yesterday.

Same! He got offered Iowa, Missouri and Dusquene. He had already applied to Iowa so they are working to bridge his file.

Congrats!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like kids we know are getting into college with little to no effort, and the colleges are accepting upwards of 70% of applications. Is this new?

If you look at SCHEV data, you see that many Virginia colleges and universities that used to accept fewer people (maybe 50%-70%) are now accepting 90%+ of people due to declining application numbers. Mary Baldwin, GMU, ODU, VCU, CNU etc. You also see the competitive VA institutions' declining acceptance rates due to increased application numbers. UVA, W&M, W&L, Virginia Tech, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like kids we know are getting into college with little to no effort, and the colleges are accepting upwards of 70% of applications. Is this new?

If you look at SCHEV data, you see that many Virginia colleges and universities that used to accept fewer people (maybe 50%-70%) are now accepting 90%+ of people due to declining application numbers. Mary Baldwin, GMU, ODU, VCU, CNU etc. You also see the competitive VA institutions' declining acceptance rates due to increased application numbers. UVA, W&M, W&L, Virginia Tech, etc.

Especially if you are a male. Lots of schools have skewed male-female ratios.

[Anonymous]

Def not T1s-T20s!!!! Next to impossible.

[Anonymous]

We live in a world where the "brand name" selective colleges are getting harder and harder to get in to, while those outside that realm are getting easier and easier.

Prestige, social media, internet, international students, common app, value (yes, selective privates are often times cheaper for low income students) whatever the cause, you are seeing this in action.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Def not T1s-T20s!!!! Next to impossible.

This.

Everyone is applying to the same 20 or so schools. Selectivity at the top is much, much greater. Add in the need blind full tuition at the Ivies and other T10s and you get more kids than ever applying, those that formerly couldn’t afford it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, most colleges potential population is falling off the demographic cliff, as predicted. Or, people just can't afford it now.

Any university / college which is not a top school will probably become easier and easier to get into.

[Anonymous]

Take Penn State. They are very cheap Merit aid and have very high tuition for OOS students.

They have to let in a ton of OOS students because giving very little merit aid and high cost most are using it as a back up school.

Does not make them bad.

[Anonymous]

Ok so why stress?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The percentages just mean more people apply. In the case of HYSP, more unqualified people apply and then that helps to show the low acceptance rate and “exclusivity.”

Chicago attracts unqualified students on purpose so they have a low acceptance rate.

I don't think it's "just" this, but it's a huge factor impacting acceptance rates at schools with national brands. Compounded at some schools by the small size of the school.

A school like Penn State receives around 80k applications a year. However, it's a big school -- over 40k undergraduate students. So it accepts around half of all applicants in order to fill out a fairly large class. Large state flagships have to admit more students to fill their already large cohorts because it is so common for students to apply to their in-state flagship regardless of how badly they want to go there. Many students will choose to go elsewhere for financial or fit reasons.

Harvard, on the other hand, gets around 55k applications, but they accept fewer than 2k students and they have a very high yield because their reputation makes it hard for students who are admitted to say no (and their small number of admitted students also makes it statistically less likely students admitted to Harvard will also get into schools an applicant might deem preferable to Harvard). Harvard's endowment also enables them to be very generous with financial aid -- if you gain acceptance they will make it feasible for you to attend. This also helps with yield.

Then you have a school like Notre Dame -- national name recognition but not as strong as Harvard's brand. They admit more students than Harvard (a bit over 3k) but receive fewer applications than either Penn State or Harvard -- just 30k applications. Their yield is better than Penn State's (as a prestigious Catholic school with a good campus experience they fill an important niche) but not as good as Harvard's. ND also has a very large endowment which helps with yield but it's not as good as Harvard's, so there is also incentive for ND to admit more full pay students.

[Anonymous]

Smaller, lower tier, less widely known colleges might well be accepting more because of the demographic cliff.

Top publics and top privates have very competitive admissions still.