archkid

As I'll soon be spinning the wheel of "choose my college" I've been thinking about something someone suggested I research and consider when comparing schools, namely attrition rates. My mom believes the schools that have the highest sophomore retention and highest grad rates are doing the best job of class selection and focusing students. My take is that the depth and breath of required work in arch programs is a huge filter in itself and will decimate any student population.
My questions are;
How can a few minutes of committee review of some stats, an essay, and some hs art really speak to someones ability to successfully master an arch program?
Do arch programs with high retention / high grad rates really know how to select their freshmen or do they take the best and run a 'no child left behind' club with what they get?
Do the schools with high attrition and lower percentage grad rates do a poor job on selection or do they cast a wide net and let nature take it's course?

Your thoughts?

-sara

sashimi46

the school that i go to (cornell) has a very low attrition rate. only 1 person out of 60 students in my class has dropped out of the program.

the admissions review doesn't just look at the portfolio to determine whether a student will do well or not in the program. they also make sure that the applicant is very dedicated to the field (interview) as well as have good scores and record. cornell is also blessed with a reputable name so it tends to attract a large number of applicants, giving cornell the opportunity to take only very committed students. also, many students have taken summer arch programs or have worked before in architecture firms so they know a little bit as to what they're getting themselves into.

larger state schools tend to have large attrition rates but that isn't because they aren't as focused or have poorer education. they generally tend to accept many students who meet certain requirements in the beginning and then try to weed them out later on. i know ASU does this. by the 2nd year, all arch students have to submit a portfolio, in which only a selected small portion of the class will be able to continue their architectural education.

angie4life14

yeah, i dont even know what attrition means. no wonder i bombed the reading on my SATs...

jackht27

you sure bombed it </sarcasm>haha
550 reading

550 is good isn't it? i know people at my school that scored like 400. ahha

angie4life14

well...it's average. i got 700 in writing and math so....550 is bombing :]

jackht27

lol i was lucky to get over 600 in math. and i got 650 in writing.

archkid

Thanks sasimi.
Seems Cornell has a lock on how to attract the best and keep 'em. To get 60 enrolled do you know how many are accepted? There has to be some who decline and go elsewhere (thinking cost or location). Maybe 30 or 40? And then I bet there's a few hundred more that were nearly but not quite as good as the 60. So where do all these top students go?

Gotta be tough on the state schools that must comply with accepting on stats rather than the whole package. The only arch grad I personally know barely got into UCBerkeley because of spreading himself thin in 10th grade. He went and finished Berkeley in 3.5yrs!

-sara

sashimi46

i don't know of any accepted applicant who declined the acceptance offer though i'm sure there are some out there who decline since cornell is expensive. i talked to admissions officers and they said in my year, only 1 out of 11 people were accepted but i'm not sure if that includes those who later declined the offer. the number of ppl who applied this year was a lot higher so it must be a lot harder now.

its hard to say where top students go since there are so many preferences. personally i would've gone to rice or cooper (didn't apply to cooper, but i would if i were admitted) if i didn't go to my school but again, it's hard to say since everyone has many preferences.

whether schools accept by stats or by whole package, any student who isn't willing to work hard and commit will eventually drop out of the school due to the rigorous nature of architectural education. it is also the profession that will detract a lot of students who aren't as committed because the profession is tough and competition is high

archkid

your saying Cornell had 660 apps for 60 seats? so 600 are looking at their second (or third) choice schools. I imagine that domino effect runs all the way down the range of schools.

Anyone know how many enrolled arch undergrads currently in the US?

-sara