stonecold23

i know there were 1000 more apps this year, but my newspaper says colgates 2011 acceptance rate went from 28% to 34%

either colgate is expecting a much lower yield of students to attend, or gate house 2 is in the works.

GateNY09

Stonecold - I am no expert on the admissions statistics, but I am a student at Colgate and have a great deal of interaction with the admissions office...that said, here is what I think [but I could be totally wrong]:

Although Colgate is sometimes used as a safety for kids applying to ivies [especially Yale and Dartmouth], as it has become increasingly more competitive the yield [those choosing to matriculate] has increasingly gone up. Beyond that, though, the school [like any school] is concerned with its ranking and placement among peers - a 34% acceptance rate would put the school out of range of some peer schools into a different category. Are you sure that statistic is correct? It just doesn't make sense, especially since the results are not posted on the website yet.

I am just curious to know where that was published - very interesting tho!

stonecold23

it was published in my local newspaper, in an article about how college admissions are getting competitive, so I can't conceive of how it is true, given the application numbers this year. and plus, theres nothing on the colgate website yet

gellino

I would say it's more likely the 34% is the expected yield for Colgate. Since Colgate had 8,752 applications, a 34% acceptance rate would translate into 2,976 acceptances. Using a 34% yield, which is what it's been for the last three years, would result in a class size of 1,012 (very unlikely after years of classes of ~ 700-740 students, except for an aberration of 908 for the class of '98). I doubt they want to make that mistake again, since they had to build all sorts of temporary housing as a result that year. Maybe, the 1,000 extra apps were by students who weren't sure, but end up being accepted to Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, Williams, Amherst; so their yield is much lower. However, if this were the case, it would be improbable they would be going to the waiting list at all, which it does seem they are, at least, sporadically doing.

Papa Chicken

found the article in question:
http://www.uticaod.com/apps/pbcs.dll...705270322/1013

here's a quote, which I suspect must be incorrectly worded, as I agree w/ gellino's analysis....

"At Colgate, just 34 percent of applicants were accepted for the fall, Chopp said."

gellino

Nice find, Papa. Since a 34% acceptance rate would be higher than what Colgate has had for, at least, the last four years, it wouldn't really fit into the context of the article; not that the author seems to appreciate the difference.

nikrud

So gelino - any idea if they are still going to the WL at all?

Papa Chicken

I emailed the article author (replete with historical admit & yield stats of course), & she responded that she'd check it out & write a correction if need be...if I hear more, I'll update here

Papa Chicken

Resolved! The reporter got back to me after checking out the detail with Colgate's press office...here's what will be written as a correction in the Utica paper:

"Because of incorrect information given to the Observer-Dispatch, the acceptance rate for Colgate university's incoming freshman class was wrong in an article on Sunday's Viewpoints page. The correct acceptance rate is 25 percent."

So, that makes more sense.....Class of '10 acceptance rate = 28% (7,873 applicants); Class of '11 acceptance rate = 25% (>8700 applicants)...so doing the math, that's roughly the same number of acceptees...~2200

gellino

Nice work, Papa. Those revised numbers make much more sense.

I have no idea if Colgate will be going to the W/L. Logic says it's more likely in a year when apps go up 11% because it's harder to assess yield, but I have no specific information except that I'm happy I'm not applying to college now except for maybe the more complete info that I now have. Good luck.