Spectrum | Jul. 28 5:05 pm EST
lies, damn lies, etc.

New statistics show it really is that hard to get into college

Courtesy of the University of Texas at Tyler

Oh, students admitted to Columbia for the upcoming academic year. You few! You happy few! You 9 percent of the 26,178 who applied! Although, according to the New York Times’ 2010 Admissions Tally, only 58 percent of you enrolled. The data ran on “The Choice Blog,” under the subheading “Demystifying College Admissions and Aid.” Further demystification after the jump.

Sure, Columbia and its 9 percent admit rate were tough, but tougher still were Harvard, Stanford, and Yale (all 7 percent), as well as Princeton, Cooper Union, and Juilliard (all of which accepted only 8 percent).

The schools weren’t the only ones playing hard to get. The highest yield (admissions-speak for the percentage of accepted students who in turn accept the school) belonged to Cooper Union and (surprise!) Harvard, each with 76 percent, followed by FIT—yes, the Fashion Institute of Technology—with 75 percent. Stanford brought in 72 percent of its admits, and Juilliard passed its audition for 70 percent of the students it admitted. So basically, the best way for a college to secure a high yield is to be highly specialized and/or pre-professional. Or Harvard or Stanford.

Wait list statistics are somewhat harder to demystify, since the tally shares the raw number—not the percentage—admitted off the wait list. Not surprisingly, more students were taken off of wait lists at larger schools. There is, however, one Big Red exception. Cornell, which had a wait list of 1,492, accepted exactly zero students from its patient purgatory.

Regardless! Congratulations to the incoming first-years, who won this numbers game. Welcome to four years of being mystified.

COMMENTS (20)

  1. you • July 28, 2010 at 5:48 pm • Reply

    do not know how to analyze statistics emily tamkin/nyt, the college admit rate is different than the overall rate because the overall includes seas etc

    VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
    Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
    • seas • July 29, 2010 at 11:53 am • Reply

      the correct idiom is “different from” because you are not comparing a noun to a clause. also, i think it is perfectly valid to analyze columbia’s college + seas admit rate because harvard uses fas + seas, princeton uses a combined stat, penn etc. simply put, the college is now not selective enough to bring the engineering rate down, because columbia seas is now the most selective engineering school in the ivy league, and the second most selective engineering school in the country behind MIT.

      VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
      Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
      • the correct idiom • July 30, 2010 at 1:19 pm •

        is incorrect. you are a fool. fool fool fool fool fool fool fool

        VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
        Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
      • silly • July 30, 2010 at 3:53 pm •

        rate different from rate;

        rate different than i had thought;

        VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
        Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
  2. thats not true • July 28, 2010 at 7:39 pm • Reply

    all colleges, harvard, princeton, yale include engineering admit rate in their overall admit rate because engineering majors are part of their colleges. It would not be fair to other colleges by comparing their overall admit rates to only Columbia college’s rate. In your case, only about 21000 people applied to columbia and only about 1,000 people got accepted, and for you to compare to, let say, Princeton’s overall undergrad body admit including engineering majors would be unfair for Princetonians. I’m sure Princeton’s and other colleges’ liberal arts majors have even lower acceptance rate than 8, since engineering pool is self-selective and not the liberal arts pool so more people naturally apply to liberal arts. The level of comparison would be different if we follow your methodology. Think before you criticize.

    VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
    Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
    • the correct idiom • July 30, 2010 at 1:19 pm • Reply

      think before you criticize. think think think think think

      VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
      Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
  3. ummm • July 30, 2010 at 12:10 am • Reply

    isn’t it easier to get into SEAS than CC?

    VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
    Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
    • not an idiot • July 30, 2010 at 3:01 am • Reply

      ?! if you have seriously considered going to engineering school, you would not be asking that question

      VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
      Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
      • Rahul • May 14, 2012 at 11:44 am •

        Apple now has Rhapsody as an app, which is a great start, but it is currently heraempd by the inability to store locally on your iPod, and has a dismal 64kbps bit rate. If this changes, then it will somewhat negate this advantage for the Zune, but the 10 songs per month will still be a big plus in Zune Pass’ favor.

        VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
        Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
    • Anonymous • July 30, 2010 at 12:08 pm • Reply

      isn’t easier for CC people to be unemployed than SEAS students?

      VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
      Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
    • Anonymous • July 30, 2010 at 12:47 pm • Reply

      Are u saying that Yale is harder to get into than MIT? Maybe by admission rate it seems, but any person with a brain knows its not true

      VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
      Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
    • if you know • July 30, 2010 at 12:52 pm • Reply

      SEAS has higher SAT composite than CC

      VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
      Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
    • Karen • May 17, 2012 at 3:03 am • Reply

      well, and you could be a female.admin anserws:Maybe it was double dragon?Powered by Yahoo! Answers Sandra asks…What should a hip hop producer have in his possesion?i know a keyboard is a must. And What should a hip hop producer have in his possesion?i know a keyboard is a must. And of coarse a

      VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
      Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
  4. seas • July 30, 2010 at 1:21 pm • Reply

    the correct idiom is “different than” because you are comparing a noun to a clause. also, i think it is not perfectly valid to analyze columbia’s college + seas admit rate because harvard does uses fas + seas, princeton does not uses a combined stat, penn etc. complexly put, the college is now not not not not selective enough to bring the engineering rate up, because columbia seas is now not the most selective engineering school in the ivy league, and the four hundreth [sic] most selective engineering school in the country behind MIT.

    VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
    Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
    • man • July 30, 2010 at 1:46 pm • Reply

      Are u crazy? you need to cool down.

      VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
      Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
      • yes • July 31, 2010 at 4:28 pm •

        no maybe than it is time to go

        VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
        Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
  5. Eddy • July 31, 2010 at 7:58 pm • Reply

    Who really cares?

    VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
    Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)
  6. Anonymous • August 2, 2010 at 12:15 pm • Reply

    What was the College’s yield?

    VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
    Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
  7. CU Alum • August 2, 2010 at 3:18 pm • Reply

    If there’s a valid way to compare something as subjective as two colleges’ admission standards, the way to do it is to compare the qualifications of the rejected applicants from each school who came closest to getting in. That way you could see where each school set the bar. Such information is not available, and the information that is available does not approximate it well enough to be useful.

    Remember that the admission process really is subjective in many ways. Even within Columbia, the College and SEAS emphasize different criteria. Some students who are rejected by SEAS would get into the College, and vice versa. Most comparisons presume that schools all apply the same standards, but that just isn’t true.

    VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
    Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
    • Anonymous • August 3, 2010 at 1:38 pm • Reply

      agree

      VA:F [1.9.20_1166]
      Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Leave a Comment



Be nice. Don't use HTML tags. And consider reading our full comment policy.