article re: this year's Ivy admit rates

[wapiti]

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/4/1/regular-admissions-class-2019/

 

A record-low 5.3 percent of applicants were offered admission to Harvard College’s Class of 2019, when the University announced on Tuesday that it had accepted 1,990 of 37,305applicants.

A total of 1,013 students were greeted with congratulatory messages when they logged into their admissions portals at 5 p.m. Tuesday, joining the 977 students who were admitted to the class through the College’s restrictive early action program. Including the 4,292 students who were deferred from the early action applicant pool, the regular admission rate was 2.8 percent this year, also down from last year’s rate of 3.1 percent.

 

The seven other Ivy League schools also released their admissions decisions on Tuesday. Yale’s admissions rate rose to 6.5 percent this year, and Cornell’s rose to 14.9 percent. Columbia accepted 6.1 percent of applicants, while Princeton accepted 7 percent and Brown 8.5 percent, all decreases from last year. The University of Pennsylvania accepted 9.9 percent.

 

 

 

ETA, another article, with rates for more schools   http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/04/01/class-of-2019-admit-rates-from-selective-to-ultra-ultra-selective/

 

[Laura Corin]

I do think that the Harvard rates are mad.  Oxford and Cambridge have acceptance rates around 21%: because UK students are limited to five university applications, and the criteria for entrance are fairly clear, young people don't waste their (and the universities') time applying unless they have a decent chance of success.

[Ann.without.an.e]

Do you think that more kids are applying to colleges and this is why?  I was reading Wake's admission's office blog and they were overwhelmed this year.  2,000 more applicants than normal, dropping their acceptance rate down to 28% :(

[mamato4]

UK students are limited to five university applications, and the criteria for entrance are fairly clear, young people don't waste their (and the universities') time applying unless they have a decent chance of success.

 

This should be instituted here in the US.  But then the schools would not make as much money from those 30,000+ applications.  ($75.00 application fee x 30,000 students = $2,250,000)

 

Many other things peeve me about the whole college application process...

[mamato4]

Do you think that more kids are applying to colleges and this is why?  I was reading Wake's admission's office blog and they were overwhelmed this year.  2,000 more applicants than normal, dropping their acceptance rate down to 28% :(

 

Having gone through the college app process this year, I see more kids applying to more schools because it is so iffy where they will get accepted.  I know kids with great stats and yet not get accepted at certain schools.  To play it safe, they wind up applying to many more schools.  Most of ds' friends applied to almost 10 schools.

 

I'm just feeling the pain right now of the kids I know who are having to deal with the rejections.

[amsunshine]

Also, perhaps it has something to do with the Common App?  Makes it easier to apply to more schools.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Having gone through the college app process this year, I see more kids applying to more schools because it is so iffy where they will get accepted.  I know kids with great stats and yet not get accepted at certain schools.  To play it safe, they wind up applying to many more schools.  Most of ds' friends applied to almost 10 schools.

 

I'm just feeling the pain right now of the kids I know who are having to deal with the rejections.

 

I think this comes in to play quite a bit.  I know in our experience that what should have been match schools for DS ended up with a waitlist designation.  If he would have counted on match schools only he would not be going anywhere next year.

 

[8filltheheart]

It is a mind boggling huge industry. Every app requiring SAT and/or ACT scores. CSS fees. App fees. Test registration fees. Take those numbers of students and factor in this flow of $$.

[Crimson Wife]

Do you think that more kids are applying to colleges and this is why?  I was reading Wake's admission's office blog and they were overwhelmed this year.  2,000 more applicants than normal, dropping their acceptance rate down to 28% :(

 

More kids aspiring to attend college.

More kids applying to a large number of schools.

More kids deciding to look outside their immediate geographical area when applying to college.

More generous financial aid policies putting the elite schools within budget for lower-income families.

[creekland]

Do you think that more kids are applying to colleges and this is why?  I was reading Wake's admission's office blog and they were overwhelmed this year.  2,000 more applicants than normal, dropping their acceptance rate down to 28% :(

 

I keep hearing that the college bubble is going to burst, but I'm really not seeing it for selective schools.  URoc's rate this year was supposedly 29% - down from 31% or so.  And they often don't end up taking many (or any) from their waitlist as the last few classes have been larger than they've wanted.  This poses a problem when it comes to dorms.  They had to convert study lounges a couple of those years.  They've even opened up brand new dorms.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Damn that's crazy.

 

 

[Hoggirl]

If I had to do this again, I would highly recomend ds con sider EA or ED for the match school.

Just highlighting the fact that one must be fairly certain finances will work out to apply ED.

[madteaparty]

The whole world is going to college, per the Economist. I agree with their recent editorial that it is essentially a very expensive sorting proxy for large corporations. I'm a bit of a cynic, I suppose.

[Crimson Wife]

There was an article in my DH's MBA alumni magazine quoting a corporate recruiter saying that if she could get a list of the admitted, she'd recruit directly from that. The 2 years and six figure plus tuition spent getting the MBA was a total waste from her POV.

[Ann.without.an.e]

The whole world is going to college, per the Economist. I agree with their recent editorial that it is essentially a very expensive sorting proxy for large corporations. I'm a bit of a cynic, I suppose.

 

 

It is going to require a college degree to fold clothes at Old Navy.  Wait...I know several people with college degrees already doing that :/  It is all kinds of complicated, in my opinion.

[SeaConquest]

There was an article in my DH's MBA alumni magazine quoting a corporate recruiter saying that if she could get a list of the admitted, she'd recruit directly from that. The 2 years and six figure plus tuition spent getting the MBA was a total waste from her POV.

Considering that most law and bschool employers start interviewing before you even have a semester of grades to hand them, this does not surprise me.

[madteaparty]

Considering that most law and bschool employers start interviewing before you even have a semester of grades to hand them, this does not surprise me.

 

Right, and the disconnect between the skills purported to be taught in law school and actual practice of law is astonishing. The whole law review process is pretty farcical, for one. And yet, we jump, hoop after hoop after hoop, cradle to grave.

[Roadrunner]

At this rate by the time my kids apply, the admissions rate will be 0.0008% and UC Riverside will be a reach school.

[mjbucks1]

This is funny considering the OP: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-honest-college-rejection-letter

[creekland]

It's definitely not a law school deal, but when I wander the research halls of URoc and see what the undergrads are working on for research... I'm impressed.

 

I don't think all the brains there are being wasted for 4 years.

 

And I know URoc has plenty of peer research universities.

 

Getting a college degree to become a flight attendant (or similar) is unnecessary and one wonders why it's a requirement other than to prove they were able to be successful at something since high school is now mainly a "we make it easy for anyone to graduate" deal.  What some other college students are doing is impressive.  Very impressive.  I know my guy has had a couple of classes where the prof openly tells them that what they are studying is too new to be in any textbook - and he's just a junior.

[FaithManor]

Having gone through the college app process this year, I see more kids applying to more schools because it is so iffy where they will get accepted.  I know kids with great stats and yet not get accepted at certain schools.  To play it safe, they wind up applying to many more schools.  Most of ds' friends applied to almost 10 schools.

 

I'm just feeling the pain right now of the kids I know who are having to deal with the rejections.

I agree and the daughter of a friend of ours, a graduate of a prep school mega stats, only applied to U of MI assuming she was a shoo in and then was waitlisted while our boy with a little bit less in stats - pretty certain it was his involvement in Team America Rocketry Challenge and Student Launch Initiative that got him in and with merit - and was scrambling to get applications in to some other schools. She did get accepted elsewhere but due to missing the scholarships deadlines is full freight which her parents simply cannot afford so she'll be going into debt up to her eyeballs! I am almost certain that her location was against her. She hails from a school district that has a HUGE number of their better students with their hearts set on U of MI, and word on the street is that this year they severely limited the number of acceptances from that area.

 

It's Russian roulette out there. For some kids, zip code alone will mean the difference between acceptance and rejection. So, only in situations, like SWB described in her post about her son, it is usually not wise to limit applications to only one or two.

 

The only safety one really has is usually a high stat student applying to a regional, extension campus. I am not certain if there is any such thing as a "safety" amongst the top 75 or so schools. They are considering all kinds of criteria unrelated to GPA, AP's, and test scores when making their decisions.

 

Those kids and parents that have figured out how crazy the admission's process is are usually looking at numerous schools.

[creekland]

Some of us chose our safeties as rolling admissions schools.  All of mine knew before (or in) Dec that they were accepted somewhere and at least had merit aid at those schools.  The final bit with finances came in later, but not the "phew, they are going to college" stage.

 

Pitt and U Alabama can make great safeties for high stat kids.  There are others.  Pitt even ended up as middle son's second choice had URoc not worked out.  It wasn't really "just" a safety.  It was a really good school for what he was looking for (brain studies of some sort and pre-med).

[Susan Wise Bauer]

 

It's Russian roulette out there. For some kids, zip code alone will mean the difference between acceptance and rejection. So, only in situations, like SWB described in her post about her son, it is usually not wise to limit applications to only one or two.

 

 Absolutely agree with this. I should have added to my post in the other thread that DS had an alternate plan for next year, which involved taking advantage of a couple of other opportunities and then re-applying to five or six more schools. We would never have applied to only one school if he'd been dead set on college or nothing for the fall, but he felt like this particular school or a year off working/travelling were his best options.

 

SWB

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Thanks for the extra info.

[Gwen in VA]

I know that "uncollege" is a REALLY weird route for bright kids at this point -- if you are bright, you go to college, period -- but it's worth investigating. If you are tired of the college rat race or consider it too expensive, google uncollege.

 

I don't want to share too many details online, but I know a 21yo young man who is living his dream having left college after his freshman year. He has a high-level job with huge responsibilities in his field of interest. Having a degree would not help him at this point. All this while his friends are still in school.....

 

There ARE career possibilities (in certain fields, not in all) that do not involve a college degree but instead involve motivation, self-teaching, skills, hard work, and connections. If there is a will, there is a way. (I think this is related to the conversation on the Stanford thread about highly-motivated students creating their own opportunities.....)

 

I think at this point people are scared to try to NOT go to college because it's so unusual. (No one my son works with wants him to go back to college, but almost eveeryone I know who has not worked with him asks me when he'll get a degree!)

[creekland]

 Absolutely agree with this. I should have added to my post in the other thread that DS had an alternate plan for next year, which involved taking advantage of a couple of other opportunities and then re-applying to five or six more schools. We would never have applied to only one school if he'd been dead set on college or nothing for the fall, but he felt like this particular school or a year off working/travelling were his best options.

 

SWB

 

Same here with youngest.  He had a viable Plan B and knew it could happen if things didn't work out with the one college he was interested in.

 

My other two wanted to head to college, so applied to more to have more options to choose from.

[8filltheheart]

I know that "uncollege" is a REALLY weird route for bright kids at this point -- if you are bright, you go to college, period -- but it's worth investigating. If you are tired of the college rat race or consider it too expensive, google uncollege.

 

I don't want to share too many details online, but I know a 21yo young man who is living his dream having left college after his freshman year. He has a high-level job with huge responsibilities in his field of interest. Having a degree would not help him at this point. All this while his friends are still in school.....

 

There ARE career possibilities (in certain fields, not in all) that do not involve a college degree but instead involve motivation, self-teaching, skills, hard work, and connections. If there is a will, there is a way. (I think this is related to the conversation on the Stanford thread about highly-motivated students creating their own opportunities.....)

 

I think at this point people are scared to try to NOT go to college because it's so unusual. (No one my son works with wants him to go back to college, but almost eveeryone I know who has not worked with him asks me when he'll get a degree!)

I think it really depends on the field and the ultimate goal. So far, my kids have wanted to pursue fields where licensing and degrees matter. Ds, otoh, does have a friend who is doing ??? (Can't remember the name) where she was formally sponsored by someone who is offering top kids the opportunity to start their own business vs. going to college. She is a very bright girl, went to SSP with him, was accepted to I think Stanford, and decided to try this route first. Her goal is something in computer programming.

[Jen in NY]

Sounds like this:

http://www.thielfellowship.org/about/about-the-fellowship/

 

[Crimson Wife]

I looked at Uncollege after reading the book and for the same price, one could get an Associates from CC or halfway to a bachelor's at our state college. So it seemed VERY overpriced.

[Crimson Wife]

I looked at Uncollege after reading the book and for the same price, one could get an Associates from CC or halfway to a bachelor's at our state college. So it seemed VERY overpriced.