<p>Kenyon, a school my kids are interested in, has on its website the following:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Personally, I find this very helpful in thinking through competitive sets. Any other schools as transparent as this on their websites?</p>
<p>Yes I saw that on one of the colleges I was surfing…darn, I can’t remember which one, but agree it was interesting reading and it wasn’t Kenyon. I do know that one of my son’s friends (a girl) applied to Oberlin, Kenyon and Grinnell.</p>
<p>Princeton Review has this feature. For a given school it offers: Students who applied to w apply to and often prefer x, sometimes prefer y, and seldom prefer z. This is available for every school it lists.</p>
<p>Here it is…it was Kalamazoo College:</p>
<p>The top overlaps*:
Albion College
Beloit College
College of Wooster
Grinnell College
Hope College
Kenyon College
Macalaster College
Michigan State University
University of Michigan </p>
<p>The second group*:
Alma College
Carleton College
Denison University
Earlham College
Miami University of Ohio
Northwestern University
Oberlin College
University of Chicago
University of Notre Dame
University of Wisconsin-Madison
*based on data from the last five years</p>
<p>The Colorado College site lists its “Top Ten Cross-Over Colleges” for each of the past 5 years. These are schools that admitted students who decline the offer most often choose instead.
[url=<a href=“http://www.coloradocollege.edu/dean/oir/statpro.htm]Statistical”>http://www.coloradocollege.edu/dean/oir/statpro.htm]Statistical</a> Profile<a href=“the%20link%20to%20a%20pdf%20is%20under” title=“Section II: Admissions”>/url</a>.</p>
<p>For 2008-2009, the top 10 are:
- Middlebury
- University of Denver
- Whitman
- Bates
- UC Boulder
- Colby
- Colorado State
- Pomona
- Scripps
- Grinnell</p>
<p>In past years, the list also has included Lewis and Clark, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Macalester, Occidental, etc.</p>
<p>I also liked to see that “overlap” information. I think you’ll find that info on many sources. Go to the “college board . com” (without the spaces) college search and you’ll find that, and Naviance even calls it “overlap”.</p>
<p>Amazon has that too, for book purchases :)</p>
<p>I like this information, not only because it gives you a picture of the schools (through the eyes of its applicants) but gives a good picture of the applicants as well. </p>
<p>Are other applicants:
- applying to like-minded schools?
- similarly priced?
- in a similar academic range?
- from the local geographic area or from across the country?</p>
<p>You can tell a lot about a school with this information.</p>
<p>the my chances dot net has the cross admit comparison which I think is really neat. It uses a clever statistical analysis to determine of those admitted to two schools, what percentage chose which one. The 50-50s are the ones that stand out to me. But tis just fun to play with.</p>
<p>How do they really know, though? What is the statistical definition of overlap? A lot of students do not tell colleges where else they applied and were accepted, so I wonder how they got a statistically valid sample. Is any of it “wishful thinking” on behalf of the colleges?</p>
<p>^Agree. These lists are not very useful. Let’s take Coolarado College as an example–of course they want to look like they’re neck in neck with Midd but they are not even close.</p>
<p>But Redroses you are missing the point that many, many kids are not choosing college because of rankings. Honestly there are many similarities to Midd and Colorado College today as for many years. In fact, 30 years ago I applied to Midd and Colorado College. That is what makes the reporting from the colleges so interesting. The kids that answer the survey have already chosen the college…they are simply reporting where else they considered. You’ve totally missed the point. My son applied to 4 colleges on the Colorado College list. Most kids don’t choose solely on rankings. It has nothing to do with “neck and neck” if you are referring to rankings.</p>
<p>I agree Redroses, just as an example say you like Middlebury and are looking for colleges with a similar vibe, but that are easier to get into. That’s when these lists become useful.</p>
<p>I also agree Redroses - how many of the colleges that stress their overlap lists are the “safety” schools for the students applying to the other schools on the list. </p>
<p>tk21769 - rather than seeing who the kids chose instead of College X, I’d like to see the list of the schools kids were accepted to and declined when they chose College X. That, to me, would be a better indication of overlap.</p>
<p>^ exactly the data available at the location I noted in my earlier post above, base don self-rports into their database. There were no cross admits in their system for these two schools though, I just looked.</p>
<p>The Fiske Guide to Colleges has a “similar schools” feature for every school it profiles. D found it extremely helpful.</p>
<p>what’s interesting, too, is to see that Kenyon and Colorado C’s overlaps draw on greater geographical diversity, while Kalamazoo’s are more regional.</p>