collegehelp

speedo-
Generating lots of rejections means the school is popular. There are more students applying than there are seats in the freshman class.

Brigham Young and Yeshiva are the only two at the bottom of the list that target specific populations (out of what? 100 schools?)

I think the toughest competion is near the top, not in the middle, where selectivity is highest. There are fewer top students to go around.

mythmom-
On the contrary, I think high yield and high applications go together. They are both affected by popularity.

lgellar

The main problem with this measure though is that some college applications are a lot easier than others. I remember Wash. U didn't require anything in addition to the Common App, whereas other schools have multiple essays on their supplement. That doesn't mean Wash. U is more popular than the schools with tougher applications...it just means there's no reason not to apply to Wash. U, so you may as well. (The application fee is a drop in the ocean compared to the actual cost of attendance

Also, if you want to track popularity, comparing it to the number of seats available doesn't really make sense. When applying, one would only think about the number of seats available in the context of how hard it is to get in. And how hard it is to get in is really a function of yield, not just how many seats are available.

speedo

collegehelp

sorry, I was looking at the lac list. Most of the schools at the
bottom are religious or single sex or in distant locations thus
attracting a specific population. A couple of schools towards the
top are interesting Ursinus and Drew. I suspect they get a lot of
apps also because of location, but can't close the deal.
again interesting data but difficult to know just what it means,
maybe if it was triangulated with yield data, selectivity and aid
it would have more meaning

lfecollegeguy

Yeah I like the list, its very informative

collegehelp

Why divide by the number of seats in the freshman class? Because larger schools have broader curricula and inherently appeal to more students because of the variety of programs. Dividing by class size helps control for the size of the curriculum. Is U Texas more popular than Caltech or vice-versa? Dividing by class size (or by curriculum variety) seems more valid if it yields a result that makes sense.

What I mean by popular is "desireable". It doesn't mean "common".

lgellar

Comparing Cal Tech to U Texas in this vein will never make sense though. The only reason I would compare Cal Tech to U Texas is if I live in the state of Texas and am trying to decide if the extra cost of Cal Tech is worth it or not. At no point would I ask myself how the applications:enrolled ratio works out. I might ask myself if having gone to Cal Tech will make me appear smarter to potential employers though. And whether it does or not could probably be determined by looking at the acceptance rate (essentially a function of yield) and SAT range.

collegehelp

Igellar-
I wouldn't look at the applications/enrollees ratio either when trying to decide on a college. I simply thought it was a good way to determine which schools are generally most attractive to students for other reasons.

Matt H

Are these numbers of applications that were applications of accepted students or just total applications received?

collegehelp

Total applications received.

WendyMouse

Well, this is interesting. What it really shows is how much work each admissions office does in proportion to the student population.

collegehelp

I think college admissions offices all work hard. What it shows is college popularity.

imaparasite

To me, this takes an average of sorts of the admission rate and the yield rate, two things which balance eachother out. Does it really make sense to combine the two? And then to call this number the "popularity"? I don't know. Applications per acceptance, ie acceptance rate alone, is probably a better determinate of popularity.

gbh875

haha, i love how far down uChicago is

jazzymom

CH:

In the case of WashU, I think 'popular' --- defined as liked by many people --- fits. There are reasons for its appeal to students across the country, if not necessarily to the CC crowd.

1. Medium-sized enrollment. There's really a limited number of very selective, highly ranked colleges with a student body in between the smallish LACs --- largest being under 3,000 (which is less than my kid's h.s.) --- and the 20,000+ big-name public universities.

2. Location in the heart of the U.S. and therefore only halfway across the country for those in the West, even less so for those in the East and South and not far at all for those in the Midwest. WashU offers students from many regions in the country the appeal of going "away" to an excellent university, but with only half a day's travel. And a MetroLink connection from the campus to the airport makes traveling easy. Distance and difficulty in travel can knock colleges off an application list, so this factor is a plus.

3. Also a plus locationwise, is the appeal for many of the image or "vibe" of the Midwest as a more laidback, less competitive place with a kinder-gentler pace and friendlier people. Also, more politically neutral (middle of the road) and moderate in weather while still offering four seasons (enough snow and winter for character but not enough to cause SAD and summers that are humid, but don't last as long as in the South.)

4. A broad range of appealing undergraduate programs in science, business, art, architecture, engineering as well as all the other usual liberal arts majors, with an emphasis on flexibility in the ability to take courses in various colleges and an avowed ease in changing majors or double or triple majoring. It is not a totally open curriculum, but minimal requirements allow for a lot of choice.

5. A very attractive, classic college campus with green quads, architecturally appealing buildings, great dorms, excellent food and a walking-distance off-campus area with plenty of restaurants, shopping, clubs, etc. and MetroLink access to places further away. Big urban park next door with many ways to escape the campus "bubble." Those who have visited do tend to see the appeal --- unlike some who have never been there --- and like it enough to apply even if they later don't choose to matriculate.

6. The appeal that it is not HYPSMC, etc. in that many applicants feel they have a decent shot at getting in, and have found other factors attractive enough to warrant application.

In other words, it can be said that WashU appeals to a lot of students applying to college. It is popular as a place to apply to for a range of reasons.

collegehelp

imaparasite-
Well, acceptance rate is pretty similar to the applications-to-enrollees ratio that I posted above. The correlation is -.81, a high correlation, inverse relationship. But, accept rate is dependent on yield and yield is a function partly of financial aid, competition from peer institutions (how tough your league is), manipulating early decision, and so forth.

You get some revealing differences when you compare my app ratio with accept rate.
Wash U is #1 in app ratio but #11 in accept rate.
Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon have high app ratios but accept rates around 26-28% (competition??)
Rochester, Fordham, Tulane, and American have high app ratios but accept rates above 40% (competion?, what?)