Acceptance Rates, High Schoolers’ Self-Esteems Reach New Lows
Anyone else find it ironic that April 1 is America's unofficial "find out if you got into college day"? Now there is a prank we'd like to see.
Record applicants, ergo record rejections, this year. The Daily Princetonian predicted of a 6% rate for its alma mater, but then realized they accidentally flipped the digit upside down, as it was actually closer to 9%. Bloated with low standards! Harvard came pretty close to the Prince's fantasized elitism, with an acceptance rate of 7.1% from its 27,462-applicant base. On Harvard Time's take on the rate:
Yale accepted 8.3% of applicants, Columbia 8.7%. Penn had the highest Ivy acceptance rate, a wide-open door to the huddled masses, at 16.3%!
Complete Ivy acceptance breakdown (except Cornell because they haven't released their numbers yet and admissions offices don't take press requests or phone calls until after the murderous rage of rebuffed high schoolers passes, on April 3), links to articles, even a spreadsheet! After the jump.
- Daily Herald's coverage
- Spec's coverage
- Crimson's coverage
- Daily Prince's updated coverage
- Daily Penn's coverage
- YDN's coverage
The New York Times points to wait lists as a source for rate-deflation:
Some colleges said they placed more students on their waiting lists than in recent years, in part because of uncertainty over how many admitted students would decide to enroll. Harvard and Princeton stopped accepting students through early admission this academic year; that meant that more than 1,500 students who would have been admitted in December were likely to have applied to many elite schools in the regular round.
Commentariat ponders whether Columbia's "low admit rate was subsidized by the other colleges' sense of social responsibility?":
At least on the surface, Columbia has directly benefited from Harvard and Princeton's attempts at injecting parity into top-flight college admissions.... there's a strong possibility that our falling admit rate is a reflection of Columbia's comparative social deafness. Couple this with a generous financial aid program that's nevertheless aimed at the kind of middle class students who would theoretically be more aware of how early decision works, and you get a pretty good sense of the University's maddeningly complicated network of institutional and social priorities.
(We link to them despite the fact that their blogroll calls us "Not Pleasurable," to which we respond, Quit pressuring us, maybe we're not ready for that yet, ok?)
On his other blog (jealous mistress!) my co-editor Jacob posted interviews with prezettes Shirley Tilghman (Princeton) and The Gutbomb (Penn). Tilghman explains the advice she gives to "every freshman":
You are here at this university to encounter the Other. To encounter what you have not encountered in your first eighteen years of life.
That's code for "We're going to admit lots of poor kids this year."
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April 2nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Brown’s kids they made happy divided by kids who applied equals 10%ish not 13. Is that because they factored in early applicants for the final admit rate?
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
During the past several weeks, there has been a rash of reported criminal incidents in and around the Cornell University campus, most of which have resulted in arrest or indictment.
Cornell University Police is now reporting that the Ithaca Police Department is investigating two additional armed robberies that occurred in the past week and that appear to be related to each other and to an incident reported in the Crime Alert issued on Monday, March 24, 2008. These additional robberies were not reported at first to police agencies by the victims. All of the incidents are now being jointly investigated by the Ithaca Police Department and Cornell Police.
The initially reported robbery occurred at about 11:15 p.m. Sunday, March 23, near the Chapter House on the 400 block of Stewart Avenue and was reported in the March 24 Crime Alert. According to the new information, this incident was preceded by another robbery that took place at approximately 11 p.m. in an apartment in the 400 block of Stewart Avenue. The male victim reported he was inside his apartment when two subjects entered the apartment, one armed with a handgun, and robbed the occupant of cash and other items. The victim was not a Cornell student.
A third robbery occurred on March 29 at approximately 10:30 p.m. in a room in a fraternity located on West Campus. The room was occupied by Cornell students and others. Two acquaintances of one of the students then entered the room, and one of the acquaintances reportedly pulled out a handgun and robbed the other occupants of cash and other items.
In all three cases, the victims described the two robbery suspects similarly. After a joint investigation by the Ithaca Police, Cornell University Police and the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office, one suspect has been apprehended . The second subject has been identified by the Ithaca Police and is being sought by authorities. A warrant for the arrest of Whitley Taylor, aka “Cash,” 36, for robbery in the first degree has been issued. Taylor is described as being a black male, 6 foot 8 inches tall, weighing 312 pounds.
To respond to the rash of recent serious criminal incidents, Cornell University Police will step up its collaboration with the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department, the Ithaca Police Department and the Cayuga Heights Police Department to heighten the visibility of public-safety patrols around the Cornell campus during the spring semester.
In addition to enhanced police patrols, Cornell Police will have its public safety auxiliary units patrolling several areas of campus throughout the rest of the semester. These unarmed auxiliary units, whose members will be clearly identified with bright green vests, will be available to serve as extra “eyes and ears” for police patrols and are trained to spot and relay information about suspicious and criminal activity. The public safety auxiliary personnel will travel in pairs and will be available to the public during their patrols to take information that will be radioed to uniformed officers and also to provide a walking escort as needed.
“Maintaining the safety of the Cornell community is always our primary concern, and we believe that this increased public-safety visibility will supplement our ongoing efforts,” said Cornell Police Chief Curt Ostrander. “Also, we continue to ask members of our community to help us, and themselves, by taking prudent and necessary safety precautions, such as locking their doors and windows at all times and traveling in groups in well-lighted areas at night.”
Suspicious activity on the Cornell campus should be reported to Cornell Police by calling 255-1111. Report an emergency by calling 911 or by using any Blue Light or other campus emergency phone. Suspicious activity off campus can be reported to the Tompkins County Emergency Dispatch Center at 272-2444, or to the Ithaca Police Department at 272-3245 – or by calling 911 in an emergency.
Cornell Police reminds people to lock their windows and doors at all times, to be aware of their surroundings at night, to avoid darkened and secluded areas, and to walk in groups.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
The yield rates of each school? That is, what percent of accepted students chose to attend at each school?
Also, what were the stats at Stanford, UChicago and other places?
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
@brunonian ‘09:
Looks that way…
(555 early admits + 2187 regular admits)/20604 = 13.3%
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Not a very good chart if the same stats from each school aren’t being compared.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Chicago’s stats will be off: their applicant pool self-selects so the admit rate is higher than normal for the level of students they get. Same thing with Caltech.
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Chicago is where fun goes to die. So say the students.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I’m confused… Why are you reporting CC stats? Or why is Columbia reporting CC stats? I thought this phase was over. Penn doesn’t list Wharton separate from CAS and their SEAS. Cornell amalgamates their colleges into one statistic. Columbia even reports the combined SEAS/CC to USNews now. Are we regressing?
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Why the particular ordering of the chart? Seems like you were almost sorting from lowest to highest acceptance rate, but why switch Yale and Princeton?
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:31 am
On that note, the ordering would go even further to actually be HYCP.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:35 am
good call y ‘11. was wondering that myself.
that said, this all looks like a bunch of dick measuring if you ask me.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:52 am
Dick-measuring, you say? That’s the American wayyyy….
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:41 am
Well there goes my sense of self-worth. Save us, Lee Stetson!!
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:43 am
shrug. if you ask me, C’s rate should include Barnard as well
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:34 am
Barnard’s a weird thing I haven’t yet figured out. Supportive points toward it not really seeming like an independent school, as it often claims to be:
-Classes definitely go both ways across the street.
– The girls are pretty well integrated, socially, with CU.
-Faculty hirings in departments on both sides of the street seem to be made to complement each other, rather than be standalone.
– Barnard’s campus is the size of my thumb.
– Despite having the most competitive admissions of the Seven Sisters, its endowment of $159 million seems kind of paltry when compared to the $1.125 billion and $1.7 billion that Smith and Wellesley possess, respectively.
That said, I really have no problems with Barnard girls, nor do I feel like they’re sneaking onto Columbia’s campus undeservedly. I feel like the vast majority of snotty CC kids suspect that if someone finds out about Barnard or General Studies being a bit easier to get into, that suddenly someone will snatch away all their hard-earned prestige points.
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 am
Cornell’s numbers are out
http://cornellsun.com/node/29453
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:03 am
Barnard is affiliated with Columbia University, but Barnard maintains an independent campus in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City, and separate faculty, administration, trustees, operating budget, and endowment.
Sharing classes does not make it “part” of columbia university.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:52 am
Something is off with the Cornell numbers. The Sun can’t do math.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Barnard gets a much better deal than their money is worth. But they do pay it back with their pussies.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
well, if getting a degree ‘authorized’ by Columbia does seems to imply having gone/belonged to Columbia, nay?
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
nasty in new haven – Barnard does not grant degrees. Columbia University grants degrees.
At the enormous, boring commencement ceremony, the dean or president of each school formally asks the president of the university to give their students degrees. The president of the university does so.
Therefore, a Barnard College diploma says Columbia University at the top in big letters, and then lists Barnard as the school within the university.
The relationship is complicated, and its applications in one category (i.e. classes) aren’t always the same as its applications in another category (i.e. dorms).
For those who just like bashing Barnard as a way to bash women: um, have fun with that.
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Columbia’s admit rate including both Columbia College and the Fu Engineering School is 10.0%. Further adding Barnard applicants to the calculation brings the combined admit rate to 12.9%. The fact that Columbia University would highlight the admit rate solely for the liberal arts college while ignoring the engineering school is a deliberate attempt to make Columbia appear misleadingly selective. You can bet that, if Fu or Barnard were more selective than CC, Columbia would pick and choose the combination to announce which makes for the most selective headline number, regardless of the broader reality.
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. All it says to me is that Penn is the biggest of all those schools (Cornell is bigger, but it’s not on there). Penn still had the second most applications, which I think says a lot. A large student body is an important part of student life at Penn.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:03 am
The real admit rate is 10.0%. Every other school reports their admissions for their combines undergraduate colleges, but Columbia insists on leaving their lack-luster (albeit improving quickly) engineering school out of it.
Barnard does not count for these numbers because one can apply to both Columbia and Barnard. One cannot apply both to Columbia College and Fu.
Academically Barnard is pretty much separate from Columbia. Socially they’re indistinguishable, and more often than not, more fun than their CC-lady counterparts.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I don’t think you can effectively combine Barnard and CC’s acceptance rates because many apply to both Barnard and CC.
April 6th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/04/06/2008-04-06_13yearold_boy_charged_in_death_of_columb.html
April 10th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
DT,
put your bra and panties back on. You mentioned women first. Barnard would usually be bashed no more than GS for its affiliation with columbia
January 27th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Ivy League?? Hell, they can’t even play football. Bunch of pencil neck geeks never made this country great.
January 28th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Jackson- GS is not affiliated with Columbia. It is one of the three undergraduate colleges along with CC and SEAS under the Columbia umbrella. That being said, the admit abstract over the past 3 years has ranged from 39% to 48% admission, with applicant pools hovering around 1000 self-selecting people. actually- here: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstract/admissions_2006-2008.htm the stats are kind of interesting- esp. the relatively high admit rate at the J-School, and the 3% admit rate at the Graduate Fine Arts program… So- add our 45% admit rate and our proportion of the student body (about 1200 total) into the campus wide admit rate (include Barnard, why the heck not?) and see if we come out higher or lower than Cornell. I’m a lit major, so I’m not touching the numbers.
/incidentally, why does anyone actually give a shit about this stuff?
//I wish we had an ice hockey team.