How difficult was it to get into your dream college this year?
The New York Times recently posted a report on the 2012–2013 application season; it features the following info for many of the most selective colleges in the U.S.:
- The number of applications received.
- The number of applications accepted, denied, and waitlisted.
- The early admission admit rate.
- The regular admit rate.
- The overall admit rate.
These numbers can be useful in a couple of different ways.
1. If you applied this year, they can help you to gain some perspective on your decisions. Let’s say you applied to Duke. If you look at its numbers, you’ll see that your application was one of 31,785 that the college received this year. Many of these applications were quite strong, but Duke was able to admit just 3,682 (less than 12 percent) of them. This being the case, your self-esteem shouldn’t suffer if Duke—or another one of these super-selective colleges—didn’t end up offering you a spot in its incoming class. The numbers show that, no matter how qualified you are, gaining admission to one of these schools is always somewhat of a long shot.
2. If you plan to apply in the coming years, these numbers can give you a sense of the odds you might face a given college. These odds can serve as a reminder to build a well-balanced college list, particularly if your “match” schools are highly selective institutions.
Want another reason to check out the Times’s report? It also includes the stats for the 2011–2012 and 2010–2011 application seasons. This allows you see trends in the admit rates at individual schools.
Click here to check out the report and here to read more about it on the Times.
