College Admissions Doesn't Need to Be So Competitive: Super High Stat Kids are not "a dime a dozen."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In his Substack post "College Admissions Doesn't Need to Be So Competitive," Arjun Panickssery argues that the intense competition for admission to top U.S. universities is not inevitable.

He suggests that factors like affirmative action, legacy preferences, institutional priorities, and athletic recruitment, rather than a vast oversupply of talent, drive the "rat race."

He notes that the top 20 schools enroll about 49,000 students annually (1.3% of high school graduates), and, the talent pool with high SAT scores (e.g., 1550+) isn’t as large as perceived—there are actually not that many "high stat" kids.

He also compares US admissions to admissions abroad and that the colleges abroad make their stats and requirements clear and limit the number of colleges students can apply to which is way less stressful and is rooted in merit not holistic admissions.

https://arjunpanickssery.substack.com/p/college-admissions-doesnt-need-to

Ok

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people saying US schools should be more like foreign schools don't actually want to go to those foreign schools over top US schools.

+1!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. T20 universities and T10 lacs admit too many hooked applicants. If they are admitting over 20% QuestBridge, they should increase their class proportionally.

Nobody is admitt 20% QB. It is under 2% at most schools so just stop now.

It's commonplace now for top colleges admitting over 20% QuestBridge.

[url]https://www.questbridge.org/partners/college-partners/swarthmore-college
[/url]

24% affiliated with QuestBridge (Class of 2028)

Not correct. At all. As an example, Yale took 66 Questbridge kids in 2025, out of 2308 admitted students. That's about 3%. Please stop spreading misinformation (or take a math class.)

Funny you chose not to explain Swarthmore numbers. I can post a lot more top colleges’ percentages.

Dude got pwned!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whatever...

yawn.

There are a few more things happening in the world than college acceptances these days.

Agree. What good is a T20 degree if the world is on fire?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people saying US schools should be more like foreign schools don't actually want to go to those foreign schools over top US schools.

+1!

I would be happy if my kids went to Oxford or Cambridge over a private university in the USA which is 2x the tuition. British schools don't have legacy preferences and many of them require admissions tests to enter. Much fairer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people saying US schools should be more like foreign schools don't actually want to go to those foreign schools over top US schools.

+1!

I would be happy if my kids went to Oxford or Cambridge over a private university in the USA which is 2x the tuition. British schools don't have legacy preferences and many of them require admissions tests to enter. Much fairer.

But why does it seem like it is only the elites attending ox bridge?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to read the article thinking I would disagree with it, but I actually agree with it. I definitely prefer holistic admissions to stats only admissions. However, holistic admissions should also take stats into account, and right now the stats system is inflated and dysfunctional, leading to an EC arms race that is even more stressful than a test-prep arms race.

This is how I feel as well. Think about how insane it is that these kids feel compelled to do all they do to get into college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to read the article thinking I would disagree with it, but I actually agree with it. I definitely prefer holistic admissions to stats only admissions. However, holistic admissions should also take stats into account, and right now the stats system is inflated and dysfunctional, leading to an EC arms race that is even more stressful than a test-prep arms race.

This is how I feel as well. Think about how insane it is that these kids feel compelled to do all they do to get into college.

and realize they will stop doing all of it as soon as they get the acceptance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. T20 universities and T10 lacs admit too many hooked applicants. If they are admitting over 20% QuestBridge, they should increase their class proportionally.

Nobody is admitt 20% QB. It is under 2% at most schools so just stop now.

It's commonplace now for top colleges admitting over 20% QuestBridge.

[url]https://www.questbridge.org/partners/college-partners/swarthmore-college
[/url]

24% affiliated with QuestBridge (Class of 2028)

That is a mistake on the Questbridge site. Swat took 15 QB kids in the class of 28 and 15 in the class of 27.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. T20 universities and T10 lacs admit too many hooked applicants. If they are admitting over 20% QuestBridge, they should increase their class proportionally.

Nobody is admitt 20% QB. It is under 2% at most schools so just stop now.

It's commonplace now for top colleges admitting over 20% QuestBridge.

[url]https://www.questbridge.org/partners/college-partners/swarthmore-college
[/url]

24% affiliated with QuestBridge (Class of 2028)

That is a mistake on the Questbridge site. Swat took 15 QB kids in the class of 28 and 15 in the class of 27.

Don't bother with data. The people who want to blame the "undeserving" poor of darker skin colors will continue to do so, despite facts showing that legacy, donor and athletic preferences far outweigh any preferences for the poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people saying US schools should be more like foreign schools don't actually want to go to those foreign schools over top US schools.

+1!

I would be happy if my kids went to Oxford or Cambridge over a private university in the USA which is 2x the tuition. British schools don't have legacy preferences and many of them require admissions tests to enter. Much fairer.

But why does it seem like it is only the elites attending ox bridge?

It's your opinion, and I don't see any evidence to support it. Why does it seem like that to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The College board needs to release raw scores for the AP tests. That way MIT and Cornell can see whether your 5 on Physics EM was a 98% or a 61%.

We throw away a lot of information that could be useful for everyone in the process.

You are assuming that MIT and Cornell care. Newsflash, they don’t.

I suspect MIT would care, given that they were among the first to go back to test required. There is a huge difference in competence between someone who got 98% of questions right vs. someone who got 61% right.

But they don’t and they have no problem telling you that they don’t. They tell you exactly what they want if you read Applying Sideways. If you talk to one of their AOs they will also tell you that they do. It care about SAT scores beyond 770 because they assume just a careless mistake beyond that. The test taker has proven that they know all of the needed material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The College board needs to release raw scores for the AP tests. That way MIT and Cornell can see whether your 5 on Physics EM was a 98% or a 61%.

We throw away a lot of information that could be useful for everyone in the process.

Sure, if the goal is to assemble a class of kids who test well.

as opposed to a class of kids who need remedial math at harvard

Agree. Harvard adding remedial ALGEBRA is insane. There are literally no excuses for it. Most kids finish algebra in 9th grade.

8th

Mine completed MVC in utero, so …

Waitlisted?

Yes, and all of those DE classes taken during the Montessori years didn’t even accrue to the transcript of the miserable public they ended up at!

The shame….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In his Substack post "College Admissions Doesn't Need to Be So Competitive," Arjun Panickssery argues that the intense competition for admission to top U.S. universities is not inevitable.

He suggests that factors like affirmative action, legacy preferences, institutional priorities, and athletic recruitment, rather than a vast oversupply of talent, drive the "rat race."

He notes that the top 20 schools enroll about 49,000 students annually (1.3% of high school graduates), and, the talent pool with high SAT scores (e.g., 1550+) isn’t as large as perceived—there are actually not that many "high stat" kids.

He also compares US admissions to admissions abroad and that the colleges abroad make their stats and requirements clear and limit the number of colleges students can apply to which is way less stressful and is rooted in merit not holistic admissions.

https://arjunpanickssery.substack.com/p/college-admissions-doesnt-need-to

I've had two unhooked kids get into HYP who did not have a 1550. higher than 1500, but not 1550.

So move the needle down to 1500 and there are really a lot of high stats kids.

also, take out about 20% of the 49,000 kids for athletes.

First you need to take out 20,000 spots because UCB and UCLA aren’t T20 schools.

Show us on the doll where the UCs hurt you.

The UCs are great schools for some but the 49,000 premise falls apart if you include two huge state flagships who aren’t traditional T20 schools but constitute 40% of his “pool”.

Where did you pick up your reading and math skills? Certainly not a UC …

Berkeley and UCLA have been in the Top 10 - 25 range for the entire lifetime of most users of this DCUM community.

They also account for around 26% of that 49,000 figure, a denominator that probably understates the total enrollment of the Top 20 schools each year anyway.

They never made the top 25 prior to the USNWR “equity” changes in 2018.

And the number is 17,000 out of the Substack writer 49,000. At 35% I was closer than you so do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people saying US schools should be more like foreign schools don't actually want to go to those foreign schools over top US schools.

+1!

I would be happy if my kids went to Oxford or Cambridge over a private university in the USA which is 2x the tuition. British schools don't have legacy preferences and many of them require admissions tests to enter. Much fairer.

Great, tell them to apply there.