When College Acceptance Rates Lie

Today we have to talk about college acceptance rates and how they can often be misleading. When you see a college with an acceptance rate of 50% or 20% or 5% of the students who’ve applied it doesn’t mean it’s like buying a lottery ticket where that’s your chance of winning. Obviously you have to be qualified, and you have to be not just among the top 50 or 20 or 5% of students in the nation or in your high school, but of the students who are applying to this college who think they can get into this college. That’s the kind of percent you need to be in. And very often when we see the acceptance rates for colleges, they are a big composite of a lot of different data. So a few things you need to consider:

First of all, if it’s a public college, very often they’re combining the in-state acceptance rate, which may be higher, with the out of state acceptance rate, which may be lower. And especially for big flagship public universities that may have a priority toward their in-staters, may have a legal requirement to accept a certain percent of their students from in-state, or may just have, you know, “if you’re in the top X percent of your graduating high school class, you’re guaranteed in if you want.” And then they’re averaging all of that in with what may be an out-of-state ivy level competition for the rest of the students. So consider that.

And if you dig through a college’s Common Data Set, and I love this stuff, it’s like the college’s best kept secrets that aren’t secret at all. If you know how to read this ugly looking document, some schools will just tell you the overall: how many students applied, how many were accepted, how many chose to go there, but other schools will break it down by in-state versus out of state. And if they do show you that, that is great information to have as well.

Something else to consider is they’re combining the regular applications with the early applications. And for schools that offer Early Decision, which is a binding early commitment, you can find in the Common Data Set how many students applied early decision and how many were accepted. And you can see that number may be much higher than the regular acceptance rate. But for colleges that don’t offer Early Decision, that only offer Early Action, you might not be able to find those numbers at all. But again, those numbers may be a lot higher, and if you’re not taking advantage of those early application opportunities, you may be reducing your chances of getting in below the overall average.

One more thing that there’s no way to really look at in the Common Data Set, or to understand about an acceptance rate, is you don’t know who’s being accepted based on if they’re a legacy student. If they have family who works at the university. If they’re being recruited by a coach. Maybe they’ll be a first generation college student. Any of those very common hooks we’ve talked about before. And of course, you don’t know what the acceptance rate is necessarily for your major, or your school within a school, to which you are applying, like the business school or the engineering school, or the school of arts and sciences. They’re mixing all that stuff in.

So ultimately, there’s no crystal ball that says this is your chance. All you can do is be a competitive applicant. Make sure that you have the kind of grades they’re looking for. And they’ll show you the average GPA of the incoming freshman class last year. They’ll show you the average SAT scores from 25th to 75th percentile. And if you’re above and beyond that range, you have a better chance than the percent they’re giving you of getting in. But if you’re within or below that range of course your odds go down. So consider this as you look at the great big spectrum of things.

And if you have questions, call us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.