Acceptance Rates--Reality Check

mrscollege
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:23:16 +0000

Thanks, bioslick. Good tip.



I don’t understand what Harvard or any school has to do with it. The schools themselves do not interact in any significant way with students when they are considering applying. The decision to apply rests with students, families and guidance counselors, not admissions



Compmom, where we live, Harvard & Princeton actively campaigned for votes, er, apps. They held a huge rah-rah seminar at a huge hotel. Together with increased mailings of late… I believe I read somewhere (NYTimes education blog?) that marketing by colleges has in fact greatly increased and impacted the number of apps. So what they’re doing is working.

But I agree with you that the Common App has helped as well.



Since the Harvard name is so well-known, even among people who don’t know that much about college choices, it makes sense that their acceptance rate would be so low, since there would be even more of those “what the heck” applicants there.

All these stats about selectivity have become sort of meaningless.



My point exactly.