What percent of students get accepted to the top 50 colleges, the top 25, and the top 5? Is there any data on this?
Not that I know of but you can figure this out yourself by looking at the colleges’ common data sets. Just google name of college and common data set and then look for their data on number of apps and number accepted. It’s not hard.
If by top you mean most selective, then this resource should help you calculate an answer within a few minutes, at least for the year of the data: https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/40090323.
It’s almost a circular argument because so many people are already predisposed to defining quality by how many applicants a college rejects. I’m amazed by how many people on CC routinely refer to colleges that reject three-quarters of their apps as “second-tier”. :neutral:
I’m surprised at how many people on CC define an excellent school by its popularity. What’s right for one person may not be right for you.
Just for one example: does Yale have a good oceanography program? You know, it’s okay but certainly not compared to many schools along the two coasts that many Yale-seekers wouldn’t consider. Glass engineering anyone? Yale doesn’t have that department. Only the relatively no-name Alfred University has one and it’s world famous.
Those are two glaring example of factors that people don’t consider beyond name, but there are so many other factors as well.
And then there are examples of getting “popular” for odd reasons – and the school gets hot! And people equate that with an increased in quality of eduction. But the school is virtually the same before and after.
Hamilton College got a bump in popularity about the same time that the musical of the same name became hot. The college didn’t improve or get worse, but it saw like a 33% increase in applications.
Northeastern U drove up ins USNWR ratings through all sorts of ploys. It’s popularity increased as a result, and the rest is circular. It’s “good” because it’s “popular” and it’s “popular” because it’s … good? One doesn’t necessarily follow the other–
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/
Kenyon College got a bump from John Green madness
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/kenyon-college/1607308-record-increase-in-applications.html
Several other schools made major marketing efforts to also gain in “popularity” and they saw a climb in rankings and a perception of quality of education: U of Chicago, GWU, Columbia, Northeastern mentioned above in more detail. etc. etc. etc.
Popularity is the driving factor behind most people’s perception of quality of education. IMHO people should look a little deeper to find the right school for them.
The reward? Merit scholarships come to mind. More pleasant educational experience also comes to mind. There are other valuable qualities as well.
By the way, if you were to graph this, you wouldn’t reveal a bell curve. You would be more likely to encounter something like an exponential distribution, particularly if you extended the plot points beyond 50 schools.