Bethesda Magazine List of Colleges

[Anonymous]

This information at the top of the linked article, is key:

"The acceptance information that the schools sent is self-reported by students, so school officials could not guarantee its accuracy. Richard Montgomery and Churchill only provided data from schools that had at least three applicants, so we have designated some of their numbers as not applicable (N/A). For brevity’s sake, we have limited the list to colleges and universities with at least seven applicants from the combined high schools."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA is on the same level as Georgetown, Wash U, and Cornell in Maryland. Pretty prestigious.

No, it takes higher GPAs and test scores to now get into UVA. The average incoming high school GPA at Georgetown is a 4.03; at Wash .Univ, a 4.11; at Cornell, a 4.04. The median (half higher, half lower) of the top 25% of UVA's entering class of 2017 was a 4.44, median was a 4.29 and bottom 25% at 4.14. Average ACT 33-35.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting, but not sure how you use it for college selection. You have no idea of the stats of those accepted/rejected. It is also hard to tell how many acceptances are accounted for by the same student. For example, if three kids get into each of HYP, is that the same three kids or nine separate kids? Although it has its own issues, matriculation stats would in many ways be more interesting.

the other thing i noticed was the differentials in acceptance even with similar numbers applying. for example, wootton, (which has a lot of asians and immigrant families) has no kids accepted to yale, yet whitman and walter johnson do. could be legacy application bonuses coming into play here.

Not only white applicants count for legacy admissions. So can Asians. Asian students started growing rapidly in numbers at the Ivies in the 1980s and that generation is now seeing their children go off to college, so I'm sure there's already legacy admits with parents of Asian heritage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. I combined the 2 lists and focused in on some of the usual suspects.

Liberal Arts Colleges: Accepts/applicants
Amherst: 12 of 67
Williams: 11 of 64
Pomona 3 of 63
Swarthmore: 11 of 97
Davidson: 11 of 43
Middlebury: 12 of 58

Wow, look at that crazy Pomona acceptance rate. Surprised to see Swarthmore with 50% more applications than just about any of its peers. Maybe kids don't want to be at a small school way out in the country, but they're willing to consider one closer to a city? Not surprised by the low application totals though - it's definitely a self-selecting group that wants a small school.

Universities: Admit/Applied
Brown: 29 of 295
Columbia: 19 of 268
Cornell: 68 of 463
Dartmouth: 13 of 163
Harvard: 16 of 277
Princeton: 21 of 307
Penn: 36 of 441
Stanford: 16 of 296
U of Chicago: 23 of 221
Yale: 30 of 296

High app totals for Penn. Maybe it's the popularity of Wharton among young men? And look at Cornell - maybe people take a shot at an Ivy acceptance by throwing in an application there? With such similar application totals, it's a little hard to escape the feeling that the same bunch of kids were applying to Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale.

The bigger the school, the more apps you're going to see. Penn and Cornell are the two biggest Ivies and received similar numbers of applications. And yes, I'm sure there's a huge overlap of applicants.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if there are stats like this available for FCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. I combined the 2 lists and focused in on some of the usual suspects.

Liberal Arts Colleges: Accepts/applicants
Amherst: 12 of 67
Williams: 11 of 64
Pomona 3 of 63
Swarthmore: 11 of 97
Davidson: 11 of 43
Middlebury: 12 of 58

Wow, look at that crazy Pomona acceptance rate. Surprised to see Swarthmore with 50% more applications than just about any of its peers. Maybe kids don't want to be at a small school way out in the country, but they're willing to consider one closer to a city? Not surprised by the low application totals though - it's definitely a self-selecting group that wants a small school.

Universities: Admit/Applied
Brown: 29 of 295
Columbia: 19 of 268
Cornell: 68 of 463
Dartmouth: 13 of 163
Harvard: 16 of 277
Princeton: 21 of 307
Penn: 36 of 441
Stanford: 16 of 296
U of Chicago: 23 of 221
Yale: 30 of 296

High app totals for Penn. Maybe it's the popularity of Wharton among young men? And look at Cornell - maybe people take a shot at an Ivy acceptance by throwing in an application there? With such similar application totals, it's a little hard to escape the feeling that the same bunch of kids were applying to Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale.

The bigger the school, the more apps you're going to see. Penn and Cornell are the two biggest Ivies and received similar numbers of applications. And yes, I'm sure there's a huge overlap of applicants.

To see if this is interesting, you would need to see similar data from CA or IL. The last data I saw, estimated 40% of Stanford is from CA. So no surprise that the NE schools are getting more applicants from Bethesda

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA is on the same level as Georgetown, Wash U, and Cornell in Maryland. Pretty prestigious.

No, it takes higher GPAs and test scores to now get into UVA. The average incoming high school GPA at Georgetown is a 4.03; at Wash .Univ, a 4.11; at Cornell, a 4.04. The median (half higher, half lower) of the top 25% of UVA's entering class of 2017 was a 4.44, median was a 4.29 and bottom 25% at 4.14. Average ACT 33-35.

No. You cannot compare GPAs across different geographies and demographics (which are in play with these schools). For instance, the average weighted GPA at UNC Chapel Hill is 4.66, which is significantly higher than UVA, but also many Ivy League schools. It is also higher than UC Berkeley, but Berkeley has about 99% reported in the top 10%. There is no standard whatsoever for grading across high schools. (And most, particularly the better ones, do not report class rank.) This is why standardized tests still should matter (as they are the only thing that is standardized), but some schools are moving away from them for different reasons.

[Anonymous]

The list looks pretty good to me. These are public schools in middle class and upper middle class neighborhoods. Many students are only going to apply to state universities and colleges, many are going to apply to second tier colleges to maximize the chance of receiving merit aid. Each of these schools has a decent number of students applying to and in many cases being admitted to top tier colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the fascination with Indiana University? Ton of kids from MD applying with great success (81% acceptance rate).

IU gives lots of OOS merit-money
Party school
Huge Greek life scene
Big 10 sports (especially hoops)
Solid business school

[Anonymous]

UPenn alum who interviews- I haven’t met a single kid from Churchill who ever sent a thank you note. These kids take it as a given that they’ll get in and then surprise, they don’t. They all have the same magnificent extra curriculars which are clearly done just to get into college. It’s much harder to get in now than when I went there in the 90s.

[Anonymous]

I knew Michigan had gotten competitive but had no idea it was so tough to get in from MoCo. Looks like 1 out of every 6.3 applicants from the listed high schools got in. It's DC's top choice but odds are not looking good. DC likes Wisconsin/Madison also and those odds seem much better.

Tips from anyone on what Michigan looks for in a student (besides good grades and scores of course)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I knew Michigan had gotten competitive but had no idea it was so tough to get in from MoCo. Looks like 1 out of every 6.3 applicants from the listed high schools got in. It's DC's top choice but odds are not looking good. DC likes Wisconsin/Madison also and those odds seem much better.

Tips from anyone on what Michigan looks for in a student (besides good grades and scores of course)?

Recruited athlete.

Ability to pay the full tuition price.

[Anonymous]

Demonstrated interest is huge if you are applying to U of M. That is why I've already signed up DC2 for a tour over Thanksgiving break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:South Carolina looks pretty popular. Merit money?

Yes, big time. They've joined Univ. of Alabama and maybe a few other southern schools in going hard after bright northeastern kids.

They’re going hard after bright kids, but why do you assume they’re going after northeastern kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Demonstrated interest is huge if you are applying to U of M. That is why I've already signed up DC2 for a tour over Thanksgiving break.

Demonstrated interest is "considered" as is talent/ability, legacy, state residency.

But test scores, recommendations, being a first-generation college student and "character" are "important."

GPA and rigor of high school curriculum are the most important factor. http://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/cds/cds_2017-2018_umaa.pdf