Colgate Common Data Set

DadofB&G · 03-27-2009, 11:15 AM

For those who may be interested...

I was informed by another poster (ericatbucknell) that Colgate now has posted its CDS for the current and past two years on its website. I think this is a great step forward for Colgate.

As the parent of a Colgate senior, I have been disappointed in the past by its attempts to beef up its stats by showing "Class Profiles" that included all admitted students instead of attending students. I think that discussion boards like this help to convince schools to be more transparent.

Colgate: Institutional Planning and Research

DadofB&G · 03-27-2009, 11:23 AM

And just to show how distorted the numbers can get, check out Colgate's "Class of 2012 Profile."

Colgate: Class of 2012 Profile

You'll see it shows an "Admitted Students" middle 50%tile SATs as 660-740 in CR and 670-760 in M. Go to the CDS, and you'll see the range of the attending students from the same class as 620-720 CR and 630-710 M. The differences range from 20 to 50 points - not insignificant. I wish now the school would update its class profile to reflect it more honestly.

bluebayou · 03-27-2009, 11:28 AM

Kudos to 'Gate for opening up the matriculant numbers. Even more props for including the gpa's of the entering students (many colleges leave that section blank).

DadofB&G · 03-27-2009, 11:55 AM

Sorry, correction needed.

Colgate's "Class of 2012 Profile" 660-740 CR 670-760 M

CDS 08-09 630-730 CR 640-730 M

A difference of between 10 and 30 points. Mea culpa.

Papa Chicken · 03-27-2009, 05:29 PM

Dad-- jeez, i'm sorry I didn't notice your thread here (I must be blind) before I posted my own. My humble CC apologies....PC

gellino · 03-27-2009, 05:38 PM

I think both Admitted and Enrolled data are important and should be available. Colgate must have previously been making this info available somehow because collegeboard, collegedata, princetonreview have historicaly been showing Enrolled data for Colgate. SATs for Enrolled vs Accepted students have historically differed by ~ 40 points.

DadofB&G · 03-27-2009, 10:43 PM

Gellino,

Yes, you could find (usually outdated) stats for Colgate from those other sources, but I think you'd agree that it's best when a school divulges this standard report to the general public, like most of its peers already do. What's really interesting is that all of Colgate's twisting and turning to put its data in a favorable light did nothing but raise eyebrows - now that it has allowed us to see its CDS we can see how very competitive a school it is.

A great decision by Colgate.

Papa - you were obviously just as excited as I was.

gellino · 03-28-2009, 01:18 PM

Yeah, I guess so. When I was applying there was no CDS, or if there was I didn't know about it. However, Colgate's general viewbook at that time reported stats for Enrolled students. I wonder when they changed their reporting? Maybe, it was when their SAT avg dropped by ~ 60 points around five years after my time there. It seems that they have come all the way back and a little more since then.

Papa Chicken · 04-07-2009, 10:22 PM

fyi....just stumbled across another source of Colgate info (Alumni Admission Program), including SATs (albeit 'admitted' not enrolled), financial aid distributions and more:
http://offices.colgate.edu/admission...manual2008.pdf

There are 3 prior years of this AAP manual with some historic data....just plug in 2005, 2006, or 2007 into the '2008' spot of the URL.

DadofB&G · 04-08-2009, 12:39 PM

Thanks, Papa!

This is an excellent overview of the College. Students now trying to decide whether to attend would do well to look it over.

standrews · 04-08-2009, 10:17 PM

Quote:

What's really interesting is that all of Colgate's twisting and turning to put its data in a favorable light did nothing but raise eyebrows

From the stand point of an applicant it is quite instructive to know the stats of students who were admitted in properly assessing his/her chances for admission. I wish more schools would post stats for admitted students.

gellino · 04-08-2009, 10:45 PM

^Yeah, I think the most imformative is to show both Admitted and Enrolled stats. I don't think they should show Admitted stats at the expense of not showing Enrolled stats, though. I think I've seen that Bucknell shows stats for Applied, Accepted and Enrolled.

Papa Chicken · 04-08-2009, 11:04 PM

I agree that seeing all 3....applied, accepted & enrolled... is most informative, but if only one, I'd rather have enrolled. Also, as most all other schools report enrolled, I think its deceptive (even if they are labeled correctly) to report only accepted because many readers will not know the difference, leading them to believe that the scores are higher than they really are.

Its been a while, but I seem to recall several other schools reporting all 3....USC comes to mind.