<p>Just want to dig the truth out. So far I have had two of them telling me their status didn’t change to “accepted”. I’d like to know if this is true for more who declined their admission offers on the phone. </p>
<p>Here’s what one student wrote in his/her PM:</p>
<p>Were it true, I’m not sure why it would matter. Most top schools indeed superscore the SAT, and given the fact that over 50% of students to WashU submit the ACT, it only makes sense that they would level the playing field.</p>
<p>Actually it does matter for marketing purpose (if it were true). People don’t compare school XYZ’s SAT with WashU’s ACT. They compare it with WashU’s SAT and they use the ACT of that school to compare with WashU’s ACT.</p>
<p>Right, so if a school is superscoring the SAT what’s to keep you from believing they don’t also superscore the ACT, especially those schools where the ACT is very common among applicants? If WashU superscores the ACT it is no different from most schools superscoring the SAT: the principle is the same.</p>
<p>Sam Lee, why Wash U want you to transfer after freshman year? Did it show on your transcript? At least, let you obsessed with bashing the school.
Ivies and MIT superscore too (they accepted me, so they did it :))</p>
<p>Sam Lee, Does it make any difference to you if a kid that didn’t want to go to any school had his online status changed? I would like to see “accepted” to those who want to be part of Wash U; the rest doesn’t matter.
Just to be curious, why if you transferred from Wash U long time ago (and you are not a parent) are still so concerned about who is in or who is out?</p>
<p>It doesn’t make any difference to the kid; did I say otherwise? It would make difference to their reported acceptance rate. I thought the point was obvious. I am posting here to discuss if WashU is manipulating its admission data excessively. All I got is bunch of WashU fans not willing to address it (in denial?), pretending not to understand what is discussed here, and attacking the messenger as being “obssessed” with WashU. Well, among the top-20 school, WashU is the one that had climbed the ranking unlike any others but at the same time, has been the most unusual in dealing with its admission and most secretive about its admission data. Ranking and admission are related. That’s the real reason why people have asked hard questions (and they were all painted by you guys as “obssessed”). </p>
<p>In my first post, I have already put the following:
and WashU fans still accused me of “bashing”. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>It’s funny that the only person directly addressing my question and not asking me “why are you obssessed…?” isn’t affliated with WashU–brand_182.</p>
<p>brand_182,</p>
<p>You are right that the principle is the same. But what’s happening here is if WashU superscores ACT, it’s superscoring BOTH SAT and ACT, while others are superscoring only SAT. Well, if you check out Yahoo education, you will see the % of those having ACT over 30 for Duke and Chicago are in the low 60s while the number is a whooping 81% for WashU. What the fraction of students take ACT vs SAT doesn’t really matter to the perception of most readers (since they don’t know and probably don’t care about it); the data “showed” WashU is definitely more competitive than Duke or UChicago. I read that number a while back and was extremely impressed, before I knew there’s such thing as superscoring ACT. I’ve never heard of it until I saw those links recently.</p>
<p>I see your point, but would have to know for a fact that other top schools don’t superscore the ACT as well. At least during my application process, I seem to recall several other top schools that said they would superscore my ACT if I sent in other tests, and this was for transfers, where test scores aren’t even usually reported to the public. For freshman, I’m sure many schools do whatever possible to portray themselves and their applicant pool in the best light.</p>
<p>Regardless, we can both acknowledge that the majority of people still pay attention to and compare schools by SATs almost exclusively. Even the USNews report, which is where the avg. test scores would probably matter most, use the SAT midrange when calculating a school’s score.</p>
<p>Jazzymom is right; you need to get a life Sam Lee. If Wash U accepted 4000 kids or 4500 it doesn’t matter, only 1350 can enroll and every year 23,000 kids would still apply to have the great opportunity of a great education in a nice place.
And you didn’t answer my questions either, what happened to you with Wash U that you couldn’t let it go?</p>
<p>True, I do agree that most people look at SAT instead. The ACT thing is secondary anyway. I am more interested in how WashU counts those who declined the offers off the waitlist.</p>
<p>Can you engage in civilized dabate and discussion? It doesn’t matter to you but you can’t deny the fact it could make a difference in magazine ranking. Does it matter? Well, the thing sells like crazy. So apparently, it does matter to many. Looks like WashU thinks it matters to them too. </p>
<p>I did fine at WashU, enjoyed my first year there, and got 3.9+ GPA. I went to WashU as premed but decided I wanted to be an engineer instead; I transferred because its engineering wasn’t among its greatest strength and I figured I wanted something a little better in that area, especially if my parents were paying that kind of tuition (international with no aid). Then I applied to NU (also thought about Michigan and even Illinois). It was purely based on academics.</p>
<p>That “magazine” doesn’t take yield anymore, so Sam, “play it again!” Only 141 kids responded to the wait list as an admission office told me (you could call them to find out this too), it won’t make any difference if they accepted all (and they didn’t) or half of them.<br>
I know you Sam, we came from the same place ;), tell the truth, ok?</p>
<p>Yeah, why are you so bitter? Trapper has caught you in a lie. Tell us why you despise Wash U. Trapper, if you don’t mind, could you enlighten the rest of us as to why Sam Lee spends so much time attacking the school?</p>
<p>Such breathless enthusiasm for such dull subject matter indicates to me that yes, you are either “obsessed” with this topic or you have found for yourself the most boring hobby ever. </p>
<p>What’s so annoying about your posts is that they are pure speculation — about something insignificant — that pretend to be about something meaningful. First, you open the discussion with something some cc member ‘said’ is true (Washu superscores the ACT) with no other factual backup and then go on to discuss it in the earnest tones of someone ferreting out some great truth before you’ve even established if that’s something Washu actually does. In the “link” you mention, there’s no mention of Washu in regard to SAT or ACT superscoring. In fact, the only factual info given in a link to something Xiggi posted is a policy statement that says that Yale in fact, does look at a composite of ACT scores. So Yale superscores the ACT. Shall we make a federal case out of how that might affect their rankings? (Didn’t think so.) </p>
<p>Your justification of this accusatory line of questioning about ACT scores and waitlist admits is how it might affect the magazine rankings. This is coming despite the many times it has been pointed out that “student selectivity” accounts for only 15 percent of the USNWR ranking methodology and within that, acceptance rate accounts for only 10 percent. So what exactly are we supposed to be in “denial” about? Some admission policies that have a minimal impact on overall rank in one major magazine ratings issue? Should we all become as deeply concerned as you are with every little facet of how the rankings are determined and whether one college or the other should be one number up or down in comparison with the next? Please, spare us. </p>
<p>I repeat, you need to get a life. Or at least, a more interesting hobby.</p>
<p>Tell a lie and then accuse me lying…nice tactics to kill this thread.</p>
<p>I just called the admission and asked about the #offers off the waitlist. The guy told me they were still waiting to hear back from students; he didn’t really answer my question obviously so I asked again in a slightly different way and he told me he didn’t know on top of his head. </p>
<p>Trapper,
You may want to think of a better lie. There were 21 people that said they got off the waitlist in “Waitlist Update” thread. It’s extremely unlikely 1 out of 7 would come to CC and post when no more than 100 out of 2000-4000 admits posted their results on CC for any other school. By the way, be careful what you ask for. People may do things you don’t expect them to.</p>
<p>By the way, I said acceptance rate, not yield (the two are related anyway). Nice try to distort.</p>