Admissions Blog

Undergraduate Admissions Uncensored

Penn’s Class of 2022 Acceptance Rates

Posted on by Leave a Comment

Eric J. Furda, University of Pennsylvania’s Dean of Admissions, provided high school counselors with a June update today, and in it he shared Penn’s three acceptance rates for the just-concluded admissions cycle.

Penn in the city of Philadelphia, PA.

Penn’s overall acceptance rate for this year’s roughly 44,500 applicants was a hair above 8 percent. Yet, this number tells only a small part of the story. Over fifty percent of Penn’s Class of 2022 was accepted Early Decision, and Penn’s Early Decision Acceptance rate this cycle was 18.5 percent. This meant that Penn’s third and final acceptance rate, it’s Regular Decision acceptance rate, was a paltry 6 percent.

In terms of ratios, this year’s numbers track well with Penn’s proclivity for having an Early Decision acceptance rate that weighs in at roughly three times as size (percentage-wise) as its Regular Decision acceptance rate (18.5:6).

Furda also shared information on the importance Penn places on fit it its applicants while also informing counselors that last year, 46 percent of Penn undergrads received financial aid. The average aid award last year was an impressive $50,348.

Washington University Adds Essay and Early Decision II

Posted on by 1 Comment

Julie Shimabukuro, Director of Admissions at Washington University in St. Louis has announced some major changes to the first-year application process for admission to the selective Gateway City university.

Washington University in St. Louis “will be implementing a supplemental essay in addition to the Common Application or Coalition Application essay. This will allow students to further express their interest in their academic area of choice.” wrote Shimabukuro in an email to high school counselors.

While that sounds all well and good, this news is clearly aimed at separating serious applicants (those who will surely claim to bleed Wash U. red and green) to the university from those just using the school as a great school that requires no extra work, which many high-achieving students have been doing for years because Washington University in St. Louis had no supplemental essay writing requirement beyond what many high-acheving students were already completing for other Common App and Coalition App colleges to which they were applying.

Shimabukuro went on to add that the new essay will also be used as the merit-based scholarship essay for scholarships offered by Washington University’s undergrad divisions.

It’s worth noting that applications for the John B. Ervin, Annika Rodriguez, and Danforth Scholars programs will continue to be awarded through a separate processes, which include more essay writing.

On top of this big news, Shimabukuro added the more curious news that Washington University in St. Louis will also add an Early Decision II application deadline for the first time this upcoming admissions cycle.

This means that Wash U.’s new deadline schedule is as follows for those students hoping to matriculate in Fall 2019:

Application Deadlines Scholarship & Financial Assistance Deadlines
Early Decision I – Nov. 1, 2018 Need-based Financial Assistance (ED) – Nov. 15, 2018
Early Decision II – Jan. 2, 2019 Need-based Financial Assistance (EDII) – Jan. 15, 2019
Regular Decision – Jan. 2, 2019 Need-based Financial Assistance (RD) – Feb. 1, 2019
Merit Scholarships – Jan. 2, 2019

Washington University in St. Louis is clearly trying to shake things up, but no reason was given for why EDII is being implemented. It will be interesting to see if Wash U. proactively communicates the acceptance rates for both of their ED rounds this time next year. The university has been one of the most successful users of ED as a means of loading up its classes early each admissions cycle.

US Department of Justice Investigating Colleges’ Early Decision Data Sharing

Posted on by Leave a Comment

Following up on its probe of certain American colleges for their admissions practices relating to Affirmative Action, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Early Decision application data sharing between colleges that offer the binding form of admission.

Reporter Erica L. Green of The New York Times explains more in this informative article, which includes thoughts from Admissions Intel founder Craig Meister.

We will continue monitoring this important story and share updates as we receive them.

Villanova’s Acceptance Rate Falls to 29%

Posted on by 6 Comments

Villanova University will release its Regular Decision admissions notifications on Thursday, March 22, 2018. Yet, before it does, the suburban Philadelphia university has shared with high school counselors important bits of information about its Class of 2022 applicant pool.

According to Michael M. Gaynor, Villanova’s director of undergraduate admission, Villanova received 22,727 applications for the 1,670 spots the university has allotted for first-year students entering this fall. 22,727 first-year applications represents a 7.65% increase in first-year applications from last year’s previous high.

In addition, Villanova began offering an Early Decision application option to students who applied this past fall. In its inaugural year, 24% of Villanova’s entering class will be admitted through the university’s new Early Decision program.

Villanova also still offers non-binding Early Action, and 12,677 Early Action applications were submitted this past fall.

As a result of its new differentiated admission options, Villanova’s overall acceptance rate has fallen to 28.8%. Last year, when the university only offered Early Action and Regular Decision, Villanova’s overall acceptance rate was 34.9%, and during the previous admission cycle, it was 43.2%. Long story short, Villanova has now joined many other colleges in using Early Decision to reduce its overall acceptance rate.

Of those students accepted, the middle 50% earned weighted high school GPAs on a traditional 4.00 scale between 4.10 and 4.48. Note that such GPAs are not final GPAs, but rather cumulative GPAs students’ earned at the time of their application submissions. Also, of those students accepted, the middle 50% SAT score range fell between 1380 and 1490 and the middle 50% score range on the ACT was between 32 and 34.

Finally, Gaynor notes that some Villanova majors are harder to get into than others. In particular, the most competitive programs were Biology, Business, Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, and Nursing.

Northwestern ED Acceptance Rate Now 26 Percent

Posted on by Leave a Comment

Northwestern University received a record 4,050 Early Decision applications this fall, and the Evanston, Illinois university is only accepting 1,073 of them ED, taking its ED acceptance rate down to a slender 26 percent overall.

Northwestern aims to accept a bit more than half of its class through ED this year, which is in line with previous years.

If you do get the unfortunate deferral letter, please read this important article: How to Respond to an Early Decision or Early Action Deferral. If you get the stinging rejection letter, please read this article: How to Recover from Early Decision or Early Action Rejection.

Congratulations to those admitted.

 

Washington U. Accepts 40 Percent of Class ED

Posted on by Leave a Comment

Ronné P. Turner, Vice Provost of Admissions & Financial Aid at Washington University in St. Louis, has shared with counselors that Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) will accept forty percent of its Class of 2022 through Early Decision. This is a meaningful increase from WUSTL’s more typical thirty-six percent of its entering class being filled through the ED pool. Last year, WUSTL accepted thirty-five percent of its Class of 2021 through the ED pool.

In addition WUSTL received two percent more ED applicants this year – 1,850 – compared to last year.

Not shared was WUSTL’s overall ED acceptance rate this admissions cycle. Last year the university had an ED acceptance rate of thirty-eight percent and and overall acceptance rate of fifteen percent.

If you do get the unfortunate deferral letter, please read this important article: How to Respond to an Early Decision or Early Action Deferral. If you get the stinging rejection letter, please read this article: How to Recover from Early Decision or Early Action Rejection.

If you get in, congratulations!

Visit Admissions Intel’s College Acceptance Gift Collection.

Admissions and Financial Aid Statistics to Keep Close at Hand | UPDATED

Posted on by Leave a Comment

Stanford University

Students and parents often find transparency in short supply when navigating the US college admissions process and when trying to determine the methodologies American colleges and universities use award financial aid. Many students and parents will spend hours – if not days – trying to splice and dice statistics gleaned from various college websites and guide books in order to determine their chances of earning admission and/or aid to colleges on their lists.

Sadly, colleges and  universities themselves have done relatively little create user-friendly transparency; however, that hasn’t stopped independent educational consultants Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy from trying to bring a degree of order and transparency to the task of gauging one’s relative likelihood of earning admission to and aid from American colleges. In recent years the two consultants have put out annual lists with the latest statistics in three distinct categories:

  1. Early Decision vs. Regular Decision Acceptance Rates: Excel | PDF
  2. Domestic Undergraduate Need-Based Aid and Merit Aid: Excel | PDF
  3. Financial Aid for Nonresident Alien Undergraduates: Excel | PDF

While entire articles could be written – and one great one by Nancy Griesemer already has – about the valuable nuggets of knowledge found within these lists, of particular note are the three following findings:

– Many of America’s most selective colleges continue to have Early Decision acceptance rates that are triple their Regular Decision acceptance rates. This continues to spur the movement motivating students to apply using binding plans early in their senior years of high school. Some particularly high ED Acceptance Rate to RD Acceptance Rate ratios of note include University of Pennsylvania (3.3 to 1), Middlebury College (3.4 to 1), Claremont McKenna College (4.7 to 1), Carleton College (3 to 1), Amherst College (3.2 to 1), and American University (3.7 to 1).

– Domestic undergraduate applicants should look very carefully at the average need met by colleges and universities on their lists, especially if these colleges are public universities or somewhat selective private colleges, as they appear to have the widest range of disparities concerning how much need they meet. While hyper-selective colleges (Ivies and their immediate peers) meet 100% of domestic applicants’ demonstrated need, public schools meet between 45% to 99% of domestic applicants’ demonstrated need and selective private colleges generally meet between 60% to 100% of domestic applicants’ demonstrated need.

– International students have more need-based aid options than they did years ago, but the majority of aid opportunities for international applicants still derive from merit-based aid and not need-based aid. Public and private colleges awarded no aid to international applicants (Auburn, Clemson, Boston College, and Carnegie Mellon University among others), only merit-based aid to international applicants (Baylor University, Boston University, Cooper Union, Rice University, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign among others), only need-based aid to international applicants (all Ivies, Colgate University, Reed College, and Villanova University among others), or both merit-based and need based aid to international applicants (Brandeis University, Bringham Young University, Grinnell College, and Skidmore among others).

AdmissionsIntel.com has included links to all three lists above and on our Resources page.

‘Early decision’ stats every applicant should see

Posted on by 1 Comment

Last year, Claremont McKenna filled 68% of its incoming class with early decision candidates.

Binding early decision (ED) is one of several tools colleges employ to control evaluative metrics like “selectivity” and  “yield” used by outside organizations seeking to rank or otherwise pass judgement on the quality of an institution.

By agreeing to apply ED to any one of many schools offering these plans, students are promising to attend an institution if admitted.  In other words, they are not only giving up the freedom to choose among future offers of admission but they are also providing colleges with virtually a 100 percent chance of “yielding” them into the institution.

And for colleges concerned about where they stand on the U.S. News pecking order of “best” colleges, this is a powerful device for crafting a class “to spec.”  So important, in fact, that much time is spent tinkering with enrollment management strategies to ensure optimal effectiveness of these plans.  And make no mistake.  Effectiveness is assessed by how well it works for the institution and not for the applicant.

Some of the considerations that go into deciding how to structure an early decision policy include target students (legacies, athletes, top academics) and their credentials, deadlines, percent of class to be filled, and what the competition is doing.

In other words, early decision gives colleges a great deal of control and they love it.  Even those schools publicly professing concern about the level of stress the admission process is causing high school students are quietly increasing the percent of class filled by these plans, moving deadlines around, and adding clever alternatives like ED II—a second chance to pledge undying love to an institution and guarantee a yield for the class.

So how can the average applicant regain some small part of control over a process that looks to be increasingly out of control?  First, by understanding what benefits colleges offer in terms of admissions advantage for early decision candidates. Obviously, a successful applicant will have a decision and lock in their college long before others in the regular decision pool. That’s good, but more importantly, some colleges sweeten the deal by appearing to admit a greater percent of early decision applicants. These schools might argue that the early decision pool is typically very strong and represents the best and most committed applicants.

The ED pool can also contain a disproportionate number of target students (athletes and legacies) making analysis of the admissions advantage even more complicated. But the deciding factor could ultimately be how much of the entering class is filled early decision. If that number approaches or exceeds 50 percent, an applicant electing not to go that route may be severely disadvantaged.

Other issues confuse the early decision strategy, and many of those focus on financial aid. Despite what they say, it’s hard to believe that a college that has admitted a student through early decision has much incentive to provide an overly generous financial aid package either in terms of total dollar amount or composition—balance of grant aid vs. loans and work study.

It’s only by understanding policies, gathering facts about how colleges use early decision and reviewing outcomes that students can begin to decide if applying early is in their best interests.

To help counselors as well as students and their families analyze and compare various early decision plans, Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy have assembled an amazing chart documenting early decision vs. regular decision acceptance rates at colleges and universities offering early decision.  They are making the chart available, free of charge, on their respective websites (see instructions below on how to access the chart).

“What we have learned from the data we compiled was that several trends in college admission are more concerning than we thought,” said Jeff Levy, an independent educational consultant (IEC) based in Los Angeles. “But we also found institutions standing firm against these trends and we were encouraged.  It turns out that the only generalization that holds true is that college advisers must really know the schools they are recommending or risk misleading students when talking to them about their chance of admission.”

The chart, based on data that is readily available to anyone taking the time to do the research, is organized alphabetically by college or can be downloaded and sorted by individual criteria.

According to Jennie Kent, an IEC working in Bogotá, Colombia, “This chart includes four main metrics:  early decision acceptance rate, regular decision acceptance rate,  percent of class filled from early decision, and the ratio of ED to RD acceptance rates.”

You won’t find anything like this analysis anywhere else. Levy and Kent meticulously research the data and spend hours putting it together. They provide an incomparable service to anyone with a need to know or desire to understand.

And some of their findings are startling.  For example, some schools give a very large advantage during early decision (ED vs. RD) include:

  • Claremont McKenna College: 32% ED to 7% RD
  • American University: 85% ED to 23% RD
  • Middlebury College: 43% ED to 13% RD
  • University of Pennsylvania: 23% ED to 7% RD

Some schools go in the opposite direction and actually have a lower admit rate for early decision:

  • University of Denver:  31% ED to 54% RD
  • Southern Methodist University (SMU): 31% ED to 50% RD
  • Virginia Tech: 47% ED to 74% RD
  • Goucher College: 67% ED to 79% RD
  • Northeastern University: 27% ED to 29% RD
  • NYU – 30% ED to 32% RD

Some schools practice a more equitable balance:

  • Carnegie Mellon University: 26% ED to 21% RD
  • Boston University: 32% ED to 29% RD
  • Brandeis University: 35% ED to 34% RD

Some schools fill a huge percent of their class early decision:

  • Claremont McKenna College: 68%
  • Bates College: 66%
  • Middlebury College: 66%
  • Carleton College: 64%
  • Others that fill more than 50% of their class from ED include Davidson, Washington and Lee, Vanderbilt, Wesleyan, Penn, Lehigh and Emory

Others—not so much:

  • Clark University: 5%
  • Goucher College: 5%
  • Northeastern University: 9%
  • Ithaca College: 10%
  • Ohio Wesleyan University: 10%
  • University of Denver: 11%
  • SMU: 17%
  • Carnegie Mellon University: 22%

And the schools with some of the lowest early decision admit rates include:

  • Harvey Mudd College: 18%
  • Pomona College: 20%
  • Brown University:  22%
  • Rice University:  23%
  • University of Pennsylvania:  23%
  • Duke University: 24%
  • Vanderbilt University: 24%

This is all enormously valuable information to use when making the decision whether or not to commit to an early decision application.

To access the complete chart, visit either one of Jennie Kent’s or Jeff Levy’s websites:

Register NOW: Test sites are in short supply for August SAT

Posted on by 1 Comment

When the College Board first announced the addition of an August test date for the SAT beginning this summer, cheers went up among those who had lobbied for adjusting the test schedule to accommodate the reality of earlier application deadlines. ACT added a September test several years ago, which turned out to be enormously popular among students with time to prep over the summer who wanted one last try before going the early admissions route. And the College Board finally saw the wisdom of doing the same.

But enthusiasm for the August test date wasn’t universally shared, particularly among test site administrators in school districts starting late in August or after Labor Day. They could easily see how difficult it would be to open buildings and find staff willing to end summer vacations early to proctor one more test.

And it appears they were right. A quick comparison of test site availability for the August 26 SAT as compared with the October 7 SAT shows that so far the College Board has come up a little short in finding seats for the test.

For example, the College Board ordinarily offers up to about 40 sites that are considered a reasonable distance (under 40 miles) from my Virginia zip code. For August, there are only 12 locations, and they do not include the high schools closest to my home which have been popular sites in the past. Instead of traveling 3.6 miles to take the test, my nearest site is about double the distance away–admittedly not too much of a hardship as long as seats remain open. But I certainly would not want to have to travel to some of the further locations suggested by the College Board, which would take me 35 miles from home and across the Washington Beltway!

Using information provided by the College Board, it appears that about 1,970 sites in the U.S. (including D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) will be administering the SAT and SAT Subject tests on August 26. On October 7, however, almost 3,440 sites will be giving the test.

In Virginia, there will be 134 test locations for October and 84 in August. Pennsylvania will open 231 sites in October, but only 87 in August. In New York, it’s 263 locations for October, and 53 in August. Massachusetts has 140 test sites in October and 37 in August. And in New Jersey, students will have 203 locations from which to choose in October, but only 69 in August.

Note that the number of available test sites offered doesn’t necessarily correlate with or predict the number of seats available. In this area, it appears that the larger sites will be open for business in August, while some of the smaller sites have opted out.

The August date is also replacing the relatively unpopular January test, which will no longer be given. And it’s possible that sites simply don’t want to add another working Saturday to their calendars.

But given the convenience of the new August test relative to making decisions about application strategies—binding Early Decision vs. nonbinding Early Action vs. Regular Decision–and ensuring timely delivery of scores, it seems entirely possible that the new date could be very popular–possibly more popular than October.

“We’re seeing a great degree of interest for the August test in all of our markets, coast to coast. Students have so many academic demands as juniors. APs wrap in May, then final exams, and then the early application deadlines hit in Mid-October to November.  August stands out as an excellent time to take an SAT, fully prepared, with minimal academic distractions,” explained Jed Applerouth, founder and CEO of Applerouth Tutoring. “I’m personally a huge fan of summer testing.  Ideally students will be able to take these college assessments entirely on their own schedule.  The summer, not surprisingly, is one of the most spacious times for many students, affording them the time to focus, prepare, and go in with the greatest chance of success.”

In other words, if I lived in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania or Virginia, I would be registering NOW and not later!

ACT is countering with a summer test of their own. In 2018, the ACT will be adding a July test date to the standardized test calendar.

Admissions data visualized

Posted on by Leave a Comment

Once again, self-described “tableau dabbler,” Jon Boeckenstedt, associate vice president for enrollment management at DePaul University, has come up with easy-to-use tools for visualizing basic college admissions data.

Drawing from information compiled in Peterson’s Undergraduate database and the Peterson’s Undergraduate Financial Aid database, both copyright 2016 by Peterson’s-Nelnet, Boeckenstedt has created a series of ten “views” or charts showing test scores, male and female admit rates, early decision vs. regular admit rates, need data as well as some general international student information to be used with caution.

And the colorful “optics” can be very revealing as well as educational for anyone putting together a college list.

For example, by looking at “SAT Math distributions,” it’s very easy to see that an applicant to Caltech with less than a 700 Math SAT has nearly no chance of admission as 98.9 percent of the freshman class entering fall 2015* (the teal-color bar) had math scores over 700 (exact numbers can be found by hovering your mouse over the bar).  Judging from ACT Composite distributions, the student with less than a 30 Composite ACT score had no chance of admission to Caltech.

Using the same database, Boeckenstedt lays out 25th and 75th percentiles for SAT CR and Math scores as well as ACT Composites. Looking at the ACT view, for Stanford University, the 25th percentile of the distribution was 31 and the 75th percentile was 35—not too promising for a student with an ACT Composite below 31.

“While test scores are not the primary factor in admissions decisions, these charts can give you a good sense of where you might stand in the applicant pool,” explained Boeckenstedt. “And while you might not eliminate yourself from consideration if your scores are close to the border between one range and another, it’s clear that high scores are an important consideration at many of these institutions.”

Admit rate data, or the percentage of applicants offered admission, is equally interesting.  The chart illustrating the difference between admit rates for men and women shows exactly how wide the margin can be. For example, in fall 2015, the admit rate for men at Vassar College was 35.4 percent and for women was 21.5 percent—a significant difference easily visualized by the distance between the purple and orange dots. At Harvey Mudd College, the admit rate for men was 9.4 percent while the admit rate for women was 21.4 percent—the dots are reversed!

But it’s the chart documenting the early decision (ED) and overall admit rates and their difference that could possibly suggest application strategies.  In fall 2015, the admit rate for ED candidates at Tufts University was 39.2 percent, but the overall admit rate was only 16.1 percent, suggesting a huge advantage for ED applicants. This is confirmed in the light blue bar to the right of the chart showing the difference between the two rates.

Boeckenstedt warns that it’s important to be realistic about admit rates. “A 15% admission rate does not mean that your chances are one in seven; your chances may be better or worse based on any one of many factors in your file.”And, “if you’re a top student in the applicant pool, your chances are probably better; if not, and if there is nothing else to get your application noticed, your chances are almost certainly worse.”

He goes on to add, “…it’s clear that Early Decision makes the choice about where to apply, and under what plans, even harder.”

All of Boeckenstedt’s charts may be filtered by state. And to navigate the various views, simply click the gray boxes or arrows along the top. Use the scroll bar to move down the view, and hover over any data point to show details.

For the record, all the score information is given in terms of the “old” SAT and not the “new” SAT.

*3/17/17 Correction

Save

Save