Same % Applicants Admitted, Different GPA Distribution

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello. I am a junior and have a quick question.</p>

<p>According to College Board, Vassar College has an admission rate of 25%, and a breakdown that looks like this:</p>

<pre><code>* 55% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher

  • 30% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
  • 12% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
  • 3% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
    </code></pre>

<p>CUNY Baruch, on the other hand, has an admission rate of 24% and a breakdown that looks like this:</p>

<pre><code>* 13% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher

  • 16% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
  • 19% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
  • 19% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
  • 24% had h.s. GPA between 2.5 and 2.99
  • 8% had h.s. GPA between 2.0 and 2.49
  • 1% had h.s. GPA between 1.0 and 1.99
    </code></pre>

<p>So even though Baruch initially appears as selective as Vassar, is Baruch’s applicant pool less competitive?</p>

<p>Thank you for your time.</p>

2

<p>Yes…</p>

3

<p>It’s time for the FAQ again: </p>

<p>SELECTIVITY </p>

<p>It’s NEVER a valid procedure to compare base acceptance rates alone to derive an inference about selectivity. That’s because different pools of applicants apply to different colleges, based on their own estimates of their chances. I’ll repost here an example I have posted earlier.</p>

<p>If Podunk Community College started a more vigorous marketing campaign, and encouraged many more applications than it has received before, it might find that the number of applications submitted was far above its capacity to enroll students, and thus find, even taking into account less than 100 percent yield of admitted students who actually enroll, that it could not admit all applicants. If Podunk has a 10 percent yield, a new first-year class size of 1,000, and receives 200,000 applications, it might issue a press release, after it admits 10,000 applicants, saying “Podunk admission rate down to 5 percent, lower than any Ivy League college.” But a thoughtful reader of that press release, even one who believes everything that Podunk reported, might still have genuine doubts that Podunk is more selective than Columbia, not to mention Harvard. Base acceptance rate is one interesting statistic about a college’s annual admission cycle, but it is not the sole competent evidence about which college is most selective. Scholars of the college admission process have some genuine disagreements about how to show which college is most “selective,” but NO ONE thinks that base acceptance rate is the last word on that subject.</p>

4

<p>Exhibit A: University of Chicago has long had an acceptance rate well above those of similar institutions, but because of its reputation as a very serious-minded place and its very time-consuming essays, the applicant pool self-selects. Thus, the average admitted student is still very good despite the high admit rate.</p>

5

<p>Middlebury has always had a higher rate than its selectivity would indicate – it has attracted very independent, not go along with the crowd, people. Obviously students have to consider a number of criteria, not just accceptance %, but also yes grades, yes SATs etc etc.</p>