<p>Not sure he’s an engineer, but the focus is on statistical analysis of all publicly available information pertaining to top 50 college entrance. Entertaining summaries for each data set.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this. I don’t understand most of the statistics, but it is interesting to see so much data in one place. The graph that shows how few spots are available for high stats kids explains a lot. Also the low acceptance rate of UCLA relative to seemingly comparable schools confirms what most of us here in CA have noticed.</p>
<p>Just finished reading Vasavada’s book. Here is my summary:</p>
<ul>
<li>To be competitive for Ivy+ admissions, Vasavada believes that students need to be at the extreme right of the curve for SAT math + CR. For asians this is typically 99th percentile. For whites, blacks and hispanics, the scores are shifted a bit to the left (95th, and 90th percentiles)</li>
<li>Vasavada presents a lot of correlations between SAT Math+CR scores, US news rank, endowment, legacy, extracurriculars. Most of the statistical relationships he finds are already well known (ie correlation between US News rank and SAT scores).</li>
</ul>
<p>The style of writing takes a bit to get used to. I have an advanced science degree and know a lot about statistics, and even for me it was dense reading. Vasavada doesn’t try to simplify the writing for non-techies. It would have been nice for him to summarize the main points from each chapter into easily understandable form. Vasavada’s own children both scored in the 780+ range for each SAT section (CR and math), and both went to Stanford. There really is little practical advice that Vasavada gives apart from trying to get your kids to score high (750+ in each SAT section).</p>
<p>The concept of the book was quite interesting but Vasavada’s desire to go straight to e-Book format wasn’t a good one. The book would have been well served to have a proper publisher and editorial staff review the book and distill out the main points.</p>
<p>I still highly suggest that all parents read this book, as it provides a great insight into one man’s quest to digest the Common Data Set.</p>
<p>Of course, at the super-selective schools, there are so many applicants pressed up against the maximum of academic credentials that successful applicants need something extra – typically either a “hook” or a very high level achievement, award, or recognition. I.e. top-end academic credentials are necessary, but nowhere near sufficient, for admission to such schools.</p>