I am just wondering for most schools what percent enrolled are “special,” meaning URM, athlete, fist generation, fundraising potential, experctional talent, etc. I do not count legacy as “special” since it is not a big advantage for admission. Also, when looking at schools 25/75 where do you need to score for most schools, not counting schools that reject most qualified applicants in their ranges. For example, for USC 30-34 25/75. What percent is likely special and what ACT score is needed to be have a good chance for a non “special” applicant.
The recruited athletes and fundraising potential applicants are probably the most special; the other categories are likely to be much less significant or insignificant at most schools.
You should be able to figure out how many total athletes there are at the school by looking up its sports teams, but it may be harder to tell how many of them got special consideration for admission (meaning recruited, as opposed to being in the normal admission pool where their sport is looked at as another extracurricular).
It is rather unlikely that any school will disclose how many fundraising potential applicants got special consideration for admission, although it is likely to be very small generally, since the number of donors making large enough donations to a given school is likely to be very small.
The hooks help, but the student has to be otherwise qualified. My daughter is an athlete but she would have been admitted to her school by just applying without the hook. I think being an athlete just made the application happen sooner (October) and maybe the acceptance faster. She was also a female applying to a school that is 75% male, and she’s a minority. I don’t think those things mattered either.
I believe at most schools it is 18.73%
@mikemac - great stat - can you direct me to the source or sources, so I can try and learn more?
I believe he was being sarcastic, as in, there is no way to know, because college admissions will not tell you.
As an example, the percentage of athletic recruits will vary depending upon the college, and the size of it’s freshman class. Athletic recruits are limited by the number of sports offered (and which sports they are). So the percentage of athletic recruits can range from ~5% at Michigan to ~20% at Williams.
There’s no way to know | it varies widely | doesn’t really matter to the rest of us anyway.
I am not sure I understand what/why you are asking,… if a school has a 20% or whatever “special” applicant pool, how is that relevant to the ACT score of those not in that pool? Always best to score in the top 25% and up crowd. But if you are referring to the LA USC in your comment, they are very holistic and it can take way more than a high ACT score to get in there. They turn away many high test/high gpa kids in favor of “more interesting” students, at least in their eyes, which is all that counts in their admissions.
@CADREAMIN of course it is always best to score in the top 25%. But if you are in a schools range but at the bottom. It is worth knowing if you have a reasonable shot to get it or weather only special applicants are accepted towards the bottom.
You might find it interesting to read Daniel Golden’s book The Price of Admission. He won a Pulitzer Prize for the articles he wrote that ultimately became the book.
@Endora I agree if you are between 25th-50th then there is no chance of admittance. But then I have read CC advise countless times “Standardized Test scores is ONE of the factors. The admission process is holistic”
Which then ends up giving the kid hope.
I believe there is some sort of weight assigned to the following categories that unhooked applicants will never be privy to.
GPA/Class Rank
Course Rigor
ACT/SAT (1450+ or 34+)
Subject tests (near 800)
ECs (National/State/County)
AP Courses (5 or 4s)
Essay
Job
Geographic Region
Demonstrated Interest
Volunteering
College adcoms keep it suitably vague, ambiguous and muddled when it comes to responding to any questions abt the topic.
Sometimes a kid asks "I have a 3.99 do I have a chance? They are told “well there are way too many criteria”
I think bottom line is… Its always “something else” 
I don’t get the “bother” part. A “don’t get your hopes up” caveat, that I get.
If a student would love to go to a certain school, and their stats are within the range, why not apply? For most kids that application would be 10% or less of their total application effort and expense.
@alooknac I would agree with you that people should apply if they are in the lower end of the range if they like the school. Besides, half of a college is not likely “special” or “hooked” applicants, so someone could still get in if everything else is above average for the school even if their test scores are 50-100 or 1-2 points below the median of students.
My cynical worldview is that elite schools want Nobel prizewinners on their faculties, but great athletes and future investment bankers as students. It’s all about money.
It’s a pretty vague question. I hope it’s not meant to help a kid narrow down targets in some sort of vacuum.