This is one of the reasons why US colleges that reject a noteworthy portion of ~4.0 GPA applicants almost always consider additional factors beyond just GPA + SAT in their decision. If GPA is not sufficient to distinguish applicants, then additional factors become increasingly important. However, SAT score is far from the only one of the additional factors used by such colleges.
An example study for a college with a high frequency of 4.0 GPA students is at http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=student . They mention “a large Ivy league college.” I suspect they are talking about Cornell. They could only explain 4% of variance in graduation rate, with the full model including scores + many other factors. ACT score was not a statistically significant predictor of graduation rate for any races in this model. Rank only reached statistical significance for non-URMs. I expect this occurs because top stat Cornell type students rarely fail out for academic reasons. Instead not graduating among top stat type kids often relates to non-academic issues/events, that are not well predicted by either GPA or SAT/ACT.
“@homerdog, I’m not sure where you’re getting that idea. Both of my kids applied to Bates without scores and were accepted. Both attended private schools, neither was on financial aid, and neither was a recruited athlete.”
This is quite distinct from UChicago, as the latter has specifically coupled TO with very generous scholarships for specific under-represented students (Pells, URMs, rural, children of police and fire, military vets) and, as a result, notably improved enrollments from these groups with the incoming class. They seem to be on a different path from selective LAC’s which dropped the test score requirement in part to help bolster applications and which also have been criticized for NOT increasing Pell and URM enrollment via TO.
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It’s possible that’s the case with some schools, but Bates, along with Bowdoin, went TO in the mid-80’s.
I know Bates has put a lot of effort into recruiting the groups you mention, to the point where a few years ago they blew out the FA budget to the tune of a million dollars when they received a mandate from the president to admit more [qualified] URM students. The overage was covered by the trustees. It’s still hard to get URM students to relocate to Maine.
I can’t find U Chicago’s Common Data Set online but according to USNWR both U Chicago and Bates have the same % of students on financial aid and the US dept. of Ed’s College Scorecard they both have 11% Pell recipients. I do have to say that I really like Chicago’s application information for rural and small town applicants. I think that’s a demographic that sometimes doesn’t get the attention it should.
I can understand why people are suspicious of TO admissions policies. I do think some schools switched to TO in an effort to boost application numbers after they saw the success places like Northeastern had in improving the quality of their application pool after they started gaming the rankings.
“I can’t find U Chicago’s Common Data Set online but according to USNWR both U Chicago and Bates have the same % of students on financial aid and the US dept. of Ed’s College Scorecard they both have 11% Pell recipients.”
UChicago only introduced TO/Empower last year, so all changes resulting from this intiative apply to Class of '23 and beyond. They won't show up in USNWR till next year. However, from the 7/10/2019 Chronicle of Higher Ed article:
“This fall, Chicago says it expects to welcome a record number of students from underrepresented backgrounds, including a 20 percent increase in first-generation and low-income students. According to the university’s current tally, Hispanic students will represent 17 percent of the incoming class, and black students will represent 10 percent — both all-time highs. And about 14 percent of incoming students are eligible for federal Pell Grants, up from 11 percent.”
“I do have to say that I really like Chicago’s application information for rural and small town applicants. I think that’s a demographic that sometimes doesn’t get the attention it should.”
The outreach to rural students has been a particular focus by some of the university's trustees who explain the outreach as follows:
" “Students from rural communities are the least likely to enroll in college of their urban and suburban peers, and also less likely to pursue highly selective institutions,” said University of Chicago Trustee Byron D. Trott, AB’81, MBA’82. “As a first-generation college-goer from a small town, I am delighted to partner with UChicago to expand the opportunities available to rural students and broaden their perceptions of what is possible.” "
The Emerging Rural Leader Program noted in the above-linked article is actually a brand new initiative for the current application cycle, so they have further stepped up the outreach to prospective rural students and their communities even over what they did last year.