Americans like to chew on numbers. We watch the stock market, compare salaries, and scrutinize batting averages. Who’s up and who’s down? Who’s rich and who’s poor? Who’s hot and who’s not?
Each spring, many selective colleges send out news releases that encourage the same questions about college admissions. Loaded with numbers, these documents seem to tell you something meaningful about different institutions. Take Stanford University’s recent announcement about the class of 2014: The university reviewed 32,022 applications from “the largest number of candidates in its history,” and sent offers to “just 7.2 percent” of applicants—an admission rate that “sets a university record.”
Other prominent colleges annually send out similar announcements, laden with the same kind of statistics. But who’s counting? Lots of people, of course. Presidents, trustees, professors, parents, applicants, and newspapers, including The New York Times, which tallies admissions data from various colleges, and likens the numbers to “early returns on election night.” For those keeping score at home, Emory University’s 15,549 applications were 51 fewer than last year’s total.
Numbers aside, these announcements are written in a language all their own. In the spirit of the season, I’ve chosen key phrases from this year’s crop of press releases, and proposed some translations.
“This year’s applicant pool was the largest in the college’s history.”
That this year’s applicant pool was the largest in the college’s history is no accident because, like many of our competitors, we have reached out to more prospective students, which is one reason why this year’s applicant pool is even bigger than last year’s record-breaking applicant pool, but surely not as large as next year’s applicant pool, which, in turn, will shatter this year’s record.
“For the first time … more than 30,000 students applied to the College.”
We feel pretty.
“The mean SAT scores for students admitted this year are: 733 Critical Reasoning, 741 Math, and 740 Writing.”
Our admitted students have our permission to develop the insufferable habit of mentioning their SAT scores for the rest of their lives.
“These young men and women are in a large sense the next generation of leaders, innovators, scientists, engineers and humanists who will make significant contributions to society …”
These young men and women are in a large sense the next generation of corporate executives, lawyers, consultants, plastic surgeons, and neighborhood assocation presidents who will make substantial financial contributions to our institution.
“In the most selective admission process in the University’s history, [we] have offered admission to 2,148, or 8.18 percent, of the record 26,247 applicants for the class of 2014. … The scholarship budget for the next fiscal year is projected to rise from this year’s $103 million to $112 million, an increase of nearly 9 percent.”
Although we are selective beyond comprehension, we are generous beyond words. Also, we have this endowment, which, as you might have heard, is gigantic.
“Of the admitted students attending high schools reporting class rank, 30 percent are valedictorians or salutatorians. Fifty-four percent are in the top two percent of their high school class, and 89 percent are in the top decile.”
Abandon all hope, ye B students.
24 Responses to ‘The Most Selective Admission Process in the University’s History’
kenyakidscan - April 2, 2010 at 6:15 am
Our admitted students have our permission to develop the insufferable habit of mentioning their SAT scores for the rest of their lives.That is the most beautiful line ever written.
klblk - April 2, 2010 at 6:44 am
One student on the New York Times admissions comment site applied to 33 (yes, 33, I had to count them twice) universities; loads more in the twenties; and six was mentioned as “only”. This suggests that there should be some sort of Bonferroni correction to college admissions statistics, particularly to selectivity, if the numbers are to make any sort of sense. That is, an application by the student applying to 33 colleges would be weighted 1/3 that of a student applying to 11 colleges, and so on. (By comparison, UK students may apply to a *maximum* of six institutions, and only to Oxford OR Cambridge, not both. This means that any absolute rise or fall in applications per place gives real information.)
lotsoquestions - April 2, 2010 at 7:31 am
I was curious, so I googled ‘things that have a seven percent chance of occurring.’ This is what came up:The chance of another terror attack on the scale of 9/11 happening anywhere in the world is only 7 percent, according to a new report to the Pentagon from a defense advisory panel — though the authors emphasize caution when it comes to predicting such events.JASON, an independent scientific advisory group that regularly advises the government, states that such predictions should be discouraged because “it is simply not possible to validate (evaluate) predictive models of rare events that have not occurred, and unvalidated models cannot be relied upon,” in a report obtained by Steven Aftergood’s Secrecy News blog.Yet the panelists justify their own prediction by engaging in an extended critique of Nassem Taleb’s “Black Swan” thesis, which says that rare events are beyond the realm of normal expectations. They argue that Taleb’s famous argument doesn’t really apply when it comes to far-reaching events such as 9/11:”Taleb is wrong that a terrorist event of 9/11′s magnitude was fundamentally unforeseeable… This suggests that another 9/11-scale event in the world is unlikely but not improbable in the next ten years, with a probability of about 7%.”———If I were writing the rejection letter, I would definitely have included that info. (Getting into Stanford is “rare, but not unforeseeable.” It is about as likely as another 9/11).You are more likely to: contract lung cancer, win the lottery, etc. etc. etc.
11132507 - April 2, 2010 at 8:11 am
Any of these name brand, USN&WR-approved colleges have any proof that their selectivity has any positive impact on the actual education they’re charging too much money for? Just what do students get out of this?
drj50 - April 2, 2010 at 8:40 am
@11132507: They get prestige.
potters5 - April 2, 2010 at 8:48 am
#2 above has a good point. Americans seem to be “bubble” prone. In the not too distant past, as real estate values artificially inflated, conventional wisdom was to bet heavily on the idea of sustainable unsustainably. Today that idea is once again a novelty.Comparatively, no one will lose the family farm if during each cycle, increasing numbers of bet-hedging prospects apply to an ever inflating list of schools. But it would be vain for institutions to preen themselves in the mirror of false selectivity. Rather, it would be more accurate to acknowledge that one is simply a commodity in an intellectual futures market. Relative selectivity can be determined by the number of selected students that actually matriculate.
22228715 - April 2, 2010 at 8:57 am
Why, of course it costs a lot of money to go here. What, you think that the personpower it takes to evaluate 30,000 applications comes cheap?”"We feel pretty” is my favorite translation. I picture a familiar selective, preening delicately in front of a full length mirror, anxiously asking who’s fairest of them all. Thanks, Eric.
smcdonald999 - April 2, 2010 at 11:27 am
When a growing population of eligible students clamor for a fixed number of available positions, admission rates decline. Promoting prestige over education is shameful behavior which undermines the productivity of any society. Those universties that refuse to meet the needs of a growing nation should have their tax exempt status adjusted to reflect the ever-declining return we receive on that investment.
zeldaca - April 2, 2010 at 11:54 am
There is something unattractive and potentially harmful in the media’s apparent obsession with the handful of institutions, which practice very selective admissions and perhaps even encourage the somewhat mindless quest for a few thousand places available in what is a tiny sub-set of American colleges and universities. It is not that there is a shortage of spaces at good colleges and universities. The problem is that supply is more widely distributed than demand. Many students would be well served by by “checking out” less well known, but still very good institutions. Jim B. in CA
jesor - April 2, 2010 at 12:04 pm
I had the recent opportunity to sit down with an “enrollment consultant” (to be left unnamed). He revealed that the most sure-fire way to increase a school’s selectivity is to recruit to a underserved population that has no hope of entering, but will be incredibly flattered that a rep from a brand-name university even spoke to them. Offer them waived application fees, and then watch the pre-denied applications roll in. You can even recruit them much later than the top students since they’ll apply later, thus allowing the efficient use of recruitment time. This tactic has three benefits: Increased “diversity” of the applicant pool, every now and then you get that hidden gem of a student, and your perceived selectivity rises as the number of students you deny increases. Of course the ethics of such tactics demand a firing squad (at least for the careers of deans and presidents that adopt these strategies), but it’ll get you to move up on USN&WR’s standings.
markcmoody - April 2, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Very, very nice, Eric.
princeton67 - April 2, 2010 at 2:40 pm
To the last four comments, Mr. Hoover forgot to append “except for athletes”. Any all-state athlete scoring within 300 points (overall) of that “selective” college’s “mean SAT scores for students admitted” will be admitted. Any all-American athlete: whoever the recruiter/coach can pressure the college into admitting. As a 30-year high-school teacher in Georgia who taught SAT prep, I saw students with less than 900 (M + V) SAT’s actively recruited and admitted to state flagship universities in the ACC and the SEC throughout the Southeast.
crazyfrog - April 2, 2010 at 8:47 pm
I’m no expert on this but aren’t more students using and more colleges accepting the common application? Doesn’t this make it easier and cheaper to apply to more schools? This could be an alternative (and more reasonable) explantaion for the pattern.
11294136 - April 3, 2010 at 7:05 am
You continue to add value to my life, Eric Hoover, something these colleges and universities are unable to do with the students they are enrolling. I will continue to work at schools that add value to student’s lives because it is so much more rewarding and worthy.
qwerty_asdf - April 3, 2010 at 9:39 am
We are facing the largest cohort of high school seniors in our history. The response of highly selective colleges, who’s massive endowments and operating budgets are subsidized by tax breaks and layers upon layers of direct and indirect federal support, has been nothing. No increase in admissions whatsoever. Wouldn’t the US benefit if 30% more of our talented young people had the opportunity to benefit from attending Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Penn, etc….
honore - April 4, 2010 at 10:18 am
1. As a very reluctant former Ivy League admissions pimp, I can tell you that if the applicant checks “Native American”, (most 4th or more generation “Americans” can claim it and then have mitochondrial DNA analysis done to “prove” it), s/he is in like the proverbial flint. Never mind that s/he is ONLY 1/512th “indian”. Once admitted, this “native American” will NEVER set foot in the American Indian program, functions, socials, but will always stop by the financial aid office to sign off on the very FAT native american scholarship check. The insider name for thes frauds was/is “Cherokee Princess” (or Prince).
honore - April 4, 2010 at 10:19 am
2. The same holds true for “African American”. I once saw the application of an allegedly “black” applicant whose claim to blackness was that of a distant great, great, great aunt X ? whose ship from England was ship-wrecked off the Barrier Islands in the South East. Most of the survivors were sub-Saharan African slaves with whom her aunt lived for years before she was rescued by Spanish explorers. In her mind this made her a descendant of the black diaspora if only by cultural affiliation. She got admitted for embracing “diversity”.
honore - April 4, 2010 at 10:31 am
3. Let me not forget the ubiquitous “hispanic/latino” admissions scam. Before me lay the applicant of an H/L student who indicated he was 10th generation Spanish Basque from the very isolated Rocky Mountain Region (think BrokeBack Mountain for a moment & recall the names of Ennis “Del Mar” & the foreman “Aguirre”). He was easily admitted on his flawless 4.0 PLUS, stellar ACT/SAT scores and very insightful essays application. A few days later, one of the admissions drones called him & mentioned that they were really looking forward to having more “latinos” on campus, to which the applicant responded, “what are you talking about?”. It seems that while he was categorically “hispanic”, the label (in the US) has come to be racialized, especially by admissions drones who stopped thinking intelligently the last time they pulled away from the Taco Bell drive-up window and were referring to him as “minority”, “person of color”, “member of the latino diaspora”. Grossly offended that he was being admitted to satisfy some quota, he rejected our admissions offer and went to another Ivy.
honore - April 4, 2010 at 10:40 am
4. I won’t indulge the C.H.E. readership with my experience in reading applications from the ubiquitous Korean adoptee whose claims to any kind of racial identity is about as insightful as playing musical chairs with drunk, blind-folded & hand-cuffed participants. Oh, and haters, please spare me your racist harangues. My comments are based on my own professional experience and not on your profound mo-ped bumper sticker analysis of fake “diversity” in the academy. Cojan verguenza ya.
valgal - April 4, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Well, that sounds like bragging to me. “We are just so amazing, everyone wants to go with us.”How about we ask a couple of more relevant questions, such as:1. How many classes do your lower and upper division students, on average, succeed in taking each semester?2. How long, on average, does it take a student to graduate from your university? Apply that same information and break it down per year of graduating class…3. What is your student retention rate? Apply that same information and break it down for each year of each graduating class.4. How many semesters does it take your students to graduate from your school? Please factor in the drop-out rates, transfers and give numbers for each year of a graduating class (rather than percentages.)5. What percent of your annual number of admissions are legacy admissions? What percent of your annual number of admissions are international students? What percentage are in-state residents? Out of state residents? Does your school have a tuition policy which prohibits raising fees for students once they are admitted, in some fashion?Change the lens, the picture changes, too.
rightwingprofessor - April 5, 2010 at 11:45 am
Seriously every white applicant should check the Native American or African American box. I mean what could possibly go wrong, I’m not aware of any schools forcing genetic testing. If we can self-identify to the census why not to Harvard? A wonderful side-effect would be to make quotas and affirmative action much harder, perhaps even impossible, as admissions staff tries to sort out who the “real” minorities are.
polskiejoe - April 5, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Stop trolling, Bill Maher. I know that’s you.
carolynlawrence - April 5, 2010 at 1:47 pm
“These young men and women are in a large sense the next generation of leaders, innovators, scientists, engineers and humanists who will make significant contributions to society …” Assuming, of course, the economy improves fast enough that they’ll be able to find jobs when they graduate in four years…
jsch0602 - April 5, 2010 at 4:17 pm
I’m actually more selective than Stanford. I’ve been asked by two students for assistance and I turned down both. 0% acceptance rate.