Anonymous wrote:I would not go off of college Vine. I would go off of your school’s specific scattergram data. Particularly for the schools whether there are enough applications like Virginia Tech or UMD.
Agree, and this is probably the answer.
But, if your school doesn't have this, I used Collegevine, CollegeRaptor and Niche (which has limited data from respondents), because our public school had no helpful resources.
CollegeRaptor was the most pessimistic, Niche was in the middle and Collegevine most optimistic, so I went with the midrange (not very scientific, I know) for general, very general estimates.
I also did some additional research, for example, my DC applied to Rutgers, which the sites show with a high acceptance rate, around 65%, but in the last 2 years, after going to the Common App, the likely, unpublicized rate is probably closer to 40%, a big difference, so I'd independently research each school on your list for up to date information. I would recommend this even if you have school specific scattergram data.
Applying to schools that are good fits for you based upon your stats, your interests, worldview, experiences and personality are hugely important, highly subjective, and can't be captured by any of this data. The Institutional Common Data Set for schools has a section, possibly Section C?, that explains what schools prioritize for applicants in the admissions process, and I would look at it for each school that you are considering. You might get some additional insight.
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