Posted on 04/08/2007 6:01:17 AM PDT by cbkaty
The overall acceptance rate at the rest of the nation's 2,500 four-year colleges and universities, which accept an average of 70 percent of applicants, has not moved. "That overall 70 percent acceptance rate hasn't changed since the 1980s," said David Hawkins, a director at the National Association of College Admissions Counsellors. Harvard turned down 1,100 student applicants with perfect 800 scores on the SAT math exam. Yale rejected several applicants with perfect 2400 scores on the three-part SAT, and Princeton turned away thousands of high school applicants with 4.0 grade point averages.
Needless to say, high school valedictorians were a dime a dozen.
It was the most selective spring in modern memory at America's elite schools, according to college admissions officers. More applications poured into top schools than in any year on record.
Schools have been sending decision letters to applicants in recent days, and rejection letters have overwhelmingly outnumbered the acceptances.
Stanford received a record 23,956 undergraduate applications for the fall term, accepting 2,456 students, meaning the school accepted 10.3 percent of applicants.
Harvard College received applications from 22,955 students, another record, and accepted 2,058 of them, for an acceptance rate of 9 percent. The university called that "the lowest admit rate in Harvard's history."
Applications to Columbia numbered 18,081, and the college accepted 1,618 of them, for what was certainly one of the lowest acceptance rates this spring at an American university: 8.9 percent.
"There's a sense of collective shock among parents at seeing extraordinarily talented kids getting rejected," said Susan Gzesh, whose son Max Rothstein is a senior with an exemplary record at the Laboratory School, a private school associated with the University of Chicago.
He applied to 12 top schools and was rejected at nine, including Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and Brown. He gained admission to Wesleyan, New York University and the University of Michigan.
College admissions officials attributed the low acceptance rate to three factors: Children of the baby boomers are graduating from high school in record numbers; more are enrolling in college immediately after high school; and the average student applies to many more colleges than in past decades.
Oh, surely not.
And about Columbia - did a track record of disrupting public speakers add bonus points to an applicant’s request?
How dare you question the infinite and omnipotent powers that be in University Authority? They teach students to question authority UNLESS its THEIR AUTHORITY. We must promote multi-culturalism at the expense of competency and ability. This is no meritocracy we're talking about here. The accident of your genetics and birthplace is far more important than race-biased test scores. After all we are talking about the bastion of liberalism here.
I was wondering how much of a role their politics played.
Well since Harvard turned down 1,100 students with perfect SAT sores, did every one of the accepted students scored that as well? We know that they only take the best of the best. Harvard would not take less qualified minority students would they?
I suspect this has far more to do with grade and test inflation than anything else.
You left out legal status. Check out any college site and you'll see whom they give preferential treatment.
Christians and Caucasians need not apply?
Now that you have posed the question, what is the answer? Have you found any information to prove on way or the other? What made you think of this question in the first place? There must some data out there to prove your supposition.
This may be simple timing. We’ve been visiting colleges for my son lately. They have all recommended getting applications in by the fall, almost a full year before the kids start college. One college told us that they have accepted 90% of their students by February. Those applying later, even with better credentials, will not be accepted unless other students reject their acceptances.
I thought perfect SAT scores used to be fairly rare. It boggles the mind that Harvard could turn down 1100 with perfect math SATs. I would not have thought there were 1100 perfect math SATs in the whole country.
Uhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmm....Affirmative Action, maybe?
Sure, it did. All of the rejectees are white, of course.
That thought crossed my mind, too. If so, then the test is too easy
That is now illegal in Michigan (of all places) as it was outlawed on a state ballot initiative last year. The State universities can no longer use race as a determining factor as acceptance to a school.
I’m pretty sure that you’re wrong. The big drive now is for universities to show how culturally diverse they are. If a university is 90% white, you can bet it’s beginning to get a black eye for its reputation, and it’s probably missing out on some kind of federal funding.
At the middle school and high school level, the push in programs is to get kids into college preparatory programs who will be a member of the first generation of their family to go to college. [In Texas, this program is called AVID.] Now, who do you think benefits from that the most? Sure—blacks and Hispanics. Not whites, not Asians.
Getting into these schools isn’t race related. It is legacy related, honorarium related and foundation related.
Then there is a group of “others” that get in so that government grants and other tax goodies can be acquired. Neither were mentioned in the story.
My kid could score a perfect 2400, have ties to the community, letter in a sport for four years and be a concert musician and he wouldn’t get in. However, if I kicked in a million or so for the new library, it wouldn’t even xome into question.
WGAS. If the kid is smart he/she/it will do well going to any college. The name on the degree won’t matter after 4 years.
“I thought perfect SAT scores used to be fairly rare. It boggles the mind that Harvard could turn down 1100 with perfect math SATs. I would not have thought there were 1100 perfect math SATs in the whole country.”
I know a 7th grader that took the practice SAT’s. Scord 550 in Math and 600 in English.
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