Which is the hardest to get accepted in?

neatoburrito
Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:43:29 +0000

Perhaps what OP meant was, which schools have the lowest acceptance rate for someone like her.

The acceptance rate for candidates who possess the qualities that XYZ School is looking for is much higher than for those who don’t possess those qualities. I realize that this statement is self-evident, but I think we all sometimes forget that what these schools are trying to do is build a community of like minded scholars, regardless of what their “diversity statement” may say.

With the high degree of self-selection that occurs, I would imagine that a large percent of the admissions decisions boil down to personality. Of course, I don’t know this for a fact. It’s just what makes sense to me. If EC, GPA, recs, ans SSAT were all that mattered, why bother with an interview or essays? I sometimes think that the statistic aspects of a candidates application are initially a filter.

Perhaps…(and this is pure conjecture on my part) it goes something like this:
First: Can they do the work?
Second: Do we like them? (via interview and essays) Will they be happy here?
Third: What needs of ours will they fill? (Financial, musical, science, athletic)

All of these things skew admissions statistics, so I understand completely why OP says that the admissions statistics only tell you a little bit.