Not sure how they can be sure of that and/or control that as IU students are currently guaranteed Kelley admission if they meet the standard admission pathway criteria. I would be interested in knowing those historical and projected numbers.
Maybe they talk about that in the article above, but it’s paywalled.
With respect to competitive clubs, workshops, etc., I spent a lot of time looking into this. S24 is going in as a finance major. From what I could tell almost every school he was looking at had a workshop/investment fund/special program that was used as a pathway to IB/elite jobs. And based on my deep dive, it looks like it ends up being the top 10% in finance that get into those spots.
On a numbers basis, Indiana has significantly more workshop spots than the comparable fund at, for example, Michigan State. But that’s because Indiana has so many more finance majors. The slots end up being about 10% of graduating finance majors at each school.
This ended up being a pattern I saw repeated across Big Ten schools, and places like Syracuse (with the orange value fund). The only place where I saw open access to a fund was Bentley. And honestly, that’s part of the reason I loved Bentley. But my son felt it was too small.
Similar to my analysis about the risk of getting into the Kelley program as a standard admit, the greatest risk of getting into one of these slots (workshop/fund) is not that the pool aiming for these slots gets a bit bigger, it’s whether or not the student can get amazing grades the first year of college.
And the ability to get great grades is, in my opinion, highly dependent on student discipline. Will the student attend all the classes, do all the reading and homework, go to office hours and seek additional academic support? And will he or she do all those things while living away from home in a super fun environment that requires real life planning skills? That’s the risk.
Personally, I’m OK with that risk. If S24 really wants one of those jobs/slots he should be willing to do all that. And if he’s not, maybe he shouldn’t be in a high-stress always-on job that has the potential to cause big $$$$ gains or losses to others. Honestly if kids can’t manage class/study time with partying in college, working a job 80 hrs a week with little life outside of work is probably not going to be a good fit. 
I agree with your assessment of risks. The Associate Director of Admissions at a Kelley said on the webinar that the biggest risk for 1st years is really time management and being able to manage the distractions that come with every kid living on their own for the first time.
As far as my son, I am fine with him attempting the standard admit route as I feel like if he really wants it he’ll prioritize and if he doesn’t, he’ll take a different path in his career as there are still viable majors such as Econ that can lead to a great career. If he doesn’t get admitted with all Bs, it wont be because he doesn’t have the smarts (3.6 UW, 32 ACT) it will be because he made a decision to prioritize other things and at some point every kid has to chart his own path.
Just for everyone’s knowledge … poets & quants is free, but you do have to give them your email.
My impression is that if more kids fall into the auto-standard bucket (Bs & better) that just leaves less room for kids in the holistic bucket. Last year only 12% of the IU students aiming for Kelley made that auto-standard bucket. So there’s a lot of room for that group to grow before Kelley is forced to expand its class.
Kelley may want to consider increasing the requirements for auto-direct admit and for auto-standard if it wants more room to pick and choose who comes in. But my guess is that IU is loving the overflow of pre-business kids, many of whom pay out of state tuition and go on to find other majors they love. My guess is also that those pre-business kids have higher stats than the general IU population as a whole and are helping to raise those numbers for the whole university. I have not done a deep dive into the numbers to try and confirm that though. (Although I suspect it is all publicly available info on one the tableau web pages.)
Kelley’s auto direct admit stats are pretty darn reachable in the overall scheme. This is not binary - so that doesn’t mean not reaching auto admit means you are not smart or cannot make it.
It means kids attending trying to be standard admit is not as large as it sounds from the number of apps, a lot are going to other schools. There are increasing apps to Kelley as the auto admit makes it a fantastic safety option. And there’s the secondary safety that used to exist with the idea a petition direct admit was relatively easy to attain.
The more apps Kelley receives the more it turns down and the one “weakness” in its ranking gets solved - the average scores/percentage of application on admit. Kelley wants this.
Sure if 20k decided to attend IU and all get Bs it would overwhelm the business school. But in reality 2k of those 20k denied Kelley apps are attending IU and 500-1k of those will start taking a few classes and realize Bschool was something like being a lawyer or doctor that was understandable and linear in high school and now they want to explore something else.
Much ado about nothing but US News/P&Q ranking stats.
I think the pool of candidates continues to increase significantly each year. The Associate Director of Admissions verbally mentioned during the webinar there were 1,000 standard admit applicants in 2023 and 12% were accepted. I have also seen the following totals for pre-business students from another source:
2020=1,030
2021=1,210
2022=1,836
My guess is in 2023, the number of pre-business majors (or “potential” Kelley Standard admit applicants) was higher than 1,836 in 2022 but clearly, not all pre-business majors actually submit a standard admit application. Reasons could vary from lost interest in business to received a C- in a class. etc.
If you assume, 2,000 pre-business majors in 2023 and 1,000 standard admit applications submitted, 120 automatically admitted with all Bs or above, and 550 spots (IU states 500-600), then we’re talking about only 50% of potential standard admit candidates apply for standard admission and 55% of those were accepted in 2023. (Note: 120 who are guaranteed still must submit an application).
Per the Poet & Quant article, if overall Kelley applications increased 28% y/y from 21,000 in 2023 to 27,000 in 2024 a reasonable assumption would be the estimated 2,000 for pre-business majors in 2023 will increase to 2,560 in 2024. And if 50% of pre-business majors submit their application for Standard admission in 2024 Kelley will receive 1,280 applications. If 12% auto admits holds true, then 154 will meet all Bs and above, leaving approximately 400 spots for the remaining 1,126 standard admit “review” candidates.
154 out of 1,280 or 12% auto accepted thru standard admit
400 out of remaining 1,126 or 35% accepted thru standard admit review
554 out of 1,280 or 43% of total standard admit “applicants” and 22% of all pre-business majors.
All that said and if taking the standard admit path, keep in mind what previous poster had said about Kelley continuing to focus on increasing % of female student population from mid to low 30% a few years ago and now up to low 40%. If a male candidate it is best to not risk it with a B- bc unless there are extenuating circumstances a C+ probably eliminates your candidacy fairly early in the standard admit review process.
Well done HooDaddy! That clinches it. We’re out of the contest and going to a direct admit school. No brainer if you got into a top 25 undegrad business school as a direct admit (or several of them).
Thanks so much for the reply! Very helpful information but my question was moreso about the larger pool of kids who got waitlisted from kelley for direct admission. I think I am part of that pool and recently I have submitted some past circumstances information to the admissions team and wanted to know how much that could alter my decision and if there was a chance i’d get moved from the larger pool to the smaller pool because of the circumstances. The circumstance was a very serious medical issue that kept me out of school for half a year and affected me for two years.
I think you have a well developed view. I’d also like to point out that IU Kelley is one of the largest undergrad business programs. There are a lot of opportunities to get involved and develop as a person. No single program or club will guaranty employment or success. It takes some hard work and personal development. That can be achieved in many ways at a place like IU.
For anyone waiting for the May 10 waitlist notification…I’d be prepared to make a quick decision. We know 3 kids who got off a Tennessee waitlist last week, they had exactly 48 hours to decide.
They are already admitted to the University, why would getting off the waitlist require an acceptance any earlier than the University deadline?
Because schools have all the power and can make whatever rules they want. Sadly.
That’s a true statement, but in this case you don’t accept Kelley to begin with, why would you have to accept it off the waitlist as a major? You’re saying IU the University might say you can accept your admission as pre-biz by May 15, but if we set you off the Kelley waitlist you have to accept it in 48 hours by May 12?
My comment wasn’t Kelley specific and what their waitlist practices may be this year, assuming they even go to the waitlist. Time will tell what happens.
I clearly misunderstood your initial question. I don’t have any insight into the being waitlisted with extenuating circumstances. Seems like a reasonable question to email the Kelley thru the Kelley website as the few times I have had questions or even called they were quick to respond and / or seek out an answer to my questions real time.
I’m just saying it’s a possibility. No idea, but other schools are doing it. Some have already committed elsewhere and a waitlist decision might change their mind to accept the Kelley da spot.
One kid we know took the Tennessee spot and canceled their initial commitment to a different school. 2 others declined and stuck with their first commitments.
Just announced that due to FAFSA delays, the deadline to matriculate has been extended again this time to June 1st. I wonder if they are going to also change the waitlist for Kelley deadline from May 10th to later as well? Also wonder if the housing priority group 1 will also be moved?
@Mattlick where did you see that? We didn’t get anything from IU regarding that change to June 1
It’s in the IU information that June 1 is the date. No idea when it was actually announced.
If you are a freshman admitted for fall 2024 and have made your decision regarding your fall enrollment, please let us know by completing the Intent to Enroll Form. To reserve your space in the class, you will also need to submit the $100 enrollment deposit by June 1, 2024.