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[quote=Anonymous]I don't want to fight. What you are seeing may just be my frustration with a circular approach that basically says, "let's agree that Harvard/Sidwell is more desirable than UCLA/Gonzaga, therefore we must throw out any numbers that don't support this assumption, leading us to conclude that Harvard/Sidwell is more desirable than UCLA/Gonzaga."  In trying to expess this as clearly as possible, I may have come off as a little abrupt, sorry.

If you have an alternative definition of "desirability," then please feel free to specify it. Pollsters and economists generally rely on the quantity demanded, in this case the number of applications. It's also possible to measure under the demand curve, but there's no way we have the data to do that in this case.

The problem with the admissions approach is exactly that it is so dependent on size - size is the denominator of the ratio of applications to acceptance. We can't arbitrarily decide that, yeah, maybe Curtis is too small so we'll throw those numbers out, but we'll consider Sidwell's 20 slots in 9th grade to be valid. Nor can we choose to interpret low acceptance #s as a measure of pure desirability, and to ignore the dependence on size. The acceptance numbers are inextricably dependent on size, and that's the problem.

As an aside, my DC was just accepted to a top ivy with an acceptance rate less than 1% different from Harvard's rate. Yet it wasn't Harvard. Does that mean my DC made a big mistake in missing Harvard's greater desirability? No, it means DC made a binding early commitment to this other ivy because it offers a certain course path that Harvard doesn't offer. This is all to underscore my point that we can't just make statements to the effect that Harvard - or Sidwell - is the "most" desirable to everyone or even to a majority.[/quote]

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