Let's quibble over semantics: what do we really mean by "highly selective" (Ex: Pitzer v Williams)?

Ruby789
Fri, 22 Apr 2016 21:39:45 +0000

Well, @Corinthian, if your point is that choosing a school based on selectivity is a poor decision making I would agree. If you don’t mind, let’s throw in another school, Let’s call it School C. School C has a huge application pool of 51,000. 9,000 students are accepted (17% roughly) and 2900 of those students enroll (32%yield) with an ACT mid fifty range of 29-33. Would you say that school is pretty selective? 17% acceptance is selective I would think.

But then you find out, that school C offers another 1000 students spots as Spring admission. About 200 enroll. We don’t know the test scores of the Spring Admits.
Next year School C enrolls another 625 in this class, and again enrolls 625 before junior year. After 30 credits, No ACT or SAT score is required.

Is this school selective? I would call this school selective for fall admission only.

Now you’re choosing between School C, and School D.

School D receives 20000 applications. School D accepts 3400 students for an acceptance rate of 17%. School D enrolls 1570 students for a 46% yield. ACT scores a mid fifty range of 29-33.No Spring admission, but a transfer class of 70 each year before sophomore and Junior years.

Is this school selective?

Which one would you choose?

BTW, these two example schools are loosely based on two real schools, and are both ranked nearly the same on USNEWS National Universities.