Selective College Admissions:
A Four-Year Process
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Presenters:
Mr. Tom Kulick
Dr. Richard Clinton
College Counselors, Strake Jesuit College Preparatory
Agenda:
•
•
•
•
Overview of selective schools
Attributes of a competitive candidate
Schools where our students do well
Special issues
Overview
• Which schools are selective?
• How selective are they?
• What are the key trends and forces that
impact most of the selective schools?
• A caveat about Naviance statistics
Lowest Acceptance Rates
Source: U.S. News & World Report
Many students aspire for admission to a prestigious
college or university, but the supply of open seats
often does not meet the demand from applicants.
Earning admission to the schools on this list can be
especially difficult. With the lowest acceptance
rates among all undergraduate institutions
surveyed by U.S. News, regardless of ranking
category, the colleges and universities listed here
are among the most selective, based on the Fall
2013 entering class.
Lowest Acceptance Rates (cont).
Institution
Rate
Institution
Rate
Stanford University
5.7%
Dartmouth College
10.4%
Harvard University
5.8%
California Institute of Technology
10.6%
Columbia University
6.9%
Claremont-McKenna College
11.7%
Yale University
6.9%
University of Pennsylvania
12.2%
Princeton University
7.4%
Duke University
12.4%
U.S. Naval Academy
7.4%
Vanderbilt University
12.7%
Cooper Union
7.7%
Northwestern University
14.0%
M.I.T.
8.2%
Amherst College
14.3%
Chicago University
8.8%
Swarthmore College
14.3%
U.S. Military Academy
9.0%
U.S Air Force Academy
15.4%
Brown University
9.2%
Cornell University
15.6%
Lowest Acceptance Rates (cont).
Institution
Rate
Institution
Rate
Wash. U – St. Louis
15.8%
Univ. of Southern California
19.8%
U.S. Coast Guard Academy
16.5%
UCLA
20.4%
Rice University
16.7%
Wesleyan University
20.4%
Olin College of Engineering
16.8%
Barnard College
20.5%
Georgetown University
17.1%
University of Notre Dame
22.3%
Johns Hopkins University
17.1%
Vassar College
24.1%
Middlebury College
17.5%
Bates College
24.2%
Williams College
17.5%
Carnegie Mellon University
25.5%
Univ. California - Berkeley
17.7%
Davidson College
25.6%
Washington & Lee Univ.
18.4%
Colby College
26.0%
Tufts University
18.9%
Tulane University
26.4%
Harvey-Mudd College
19.1%
Emory University
26.5%
Tonight’s definition of selectivity
• Average GPA of an accepted SJ applicant is 3.8
or higher
• There are 52 schools that meet that criteria
and to which at least 8 students have applied
over the past four classes
• There are 10-20 other schools of comparable
selectivity but to which our students do not
apply regularly
52 schools:
2 or more SJ applicants per year
average accepted GPA > 3.8
Midwest
Washington
Chicago
Michigan
Wash U
Illinois
California
UCLA
USC
Stanford
CalTech
Santa Clara
UC Berkley
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
Notre Dame
Northwestern
Case Western
Carleton
Colorado School of Mines
UT
Rice
New England
Harvard
MIT
Brown
Tufts
Williams
Amherst
Boston College
Dartmouth
Yale
Middle Atlantic
Columbia
Cornell
NYU
RPI
Naval Academy
Swarthmore
Lehigh
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
Princeton
Penn
Villanova
Carnegie Mellon
Southeast
Virginia
WakeForest
N. Carolina
Duke
Wash& Lee
Ga Tech
Emory
Vanderbilt
Georgia
Wm & Mary
Bands of selectivity within
this sample
1. Extraordinarily difficult without a preference; our most
outstanding candidates often face low probabilities
– Ivy League; Stanford; Cal Tech/MIT; Duke
2. Highly selective but accessible to strong students with
strong applications
– Most common: UT; Rice; Notre Dame; BC
– Many others including USC; Vanderbilt; Georgetown;
Chicago; Service Academies
3. Very likely admission for strong students
– Many including Tulane; Georgia Tech; Case Western;
Michigan
Illustration: ultra-selective schools
SJ admits to
Ivy/Stanford/MIT/Duke
2010-13
• Athlete
• Under-represented
population
• First generation
• Legacy
No Preference
15
15
Average profile of
students admitted
without preferences
GPA
SAT-1600
Sub Test
Avg
AP’s
taken
4.25
1550
780
6.5
Ultra-selective schools (cont.)
• Schools: IVY/Stanford/Cal Tech/Duke/MIT
• Student Profile: 4.2+ GPA, SAT-1450+; 33+ ACT
2012
2013
2014
# of students
17
# of students
18
# of students
12
# applying to
ultra-selective
13
# applying to
ultra-selective
14
# applying to
ultra-selective
8
# admitted to
ultra-selective
3 (23%)
# admitted to
ultra-selective
6 (43%)
# admitted to
ultra-selective
3
(38%)
Ultra-selective schools (cont.)
• 2012-2014: 35 students applied to ultraselective schools, 12 were accepted (34%)
• Which ultra-selective schools are these 12 SJ
students currently attending?
Columbia (2)
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke (2)
Harvard
M.I.T.
Princeton
Yale
* adds up to 10 students
(more on this in a moment)
Ultra-selective schools (cont.)
• 2012-2014: 35 students applied to ultraselective schools, 12 were accepted (34%)
• Of the 23 students who were not accepted,
where did they end up going?
Univ of. Texas at Austin (11)
Texas A&M
Rice University (4)
Univ. of Southern California
Georgetown
University of Virginia
Univ. of Michigan
Vanderbilt
Pomona College
Washington U. – St. Louis
Ultra-selective schools (cont.)
• 2012-2014: in addition to the 35 “elite”
students who did apply to ultra-selective
schools, there were another 12 such students
who did not do so. Where did these students
end up going?
Rice (3)
Georgetown
Vanderbilt (3)
Univ. of Virginia
Notre Dame (2)
St. Louis University
Baylor
Ultra-selective schools (cont.)
• Finally, did all students who were accepted at
an ultra-selective institution end up at that
school? While most did, there were a couple
of exceptions:
• One student chose Rice over M.I.T.
• Another chose Boston College over Princeton
• Shows that there are many other factors at
play; not simply rank and selectivity (cont. )
Ultra-selective schools (cont.)
• Other factors may include:
• Financial – cost, financial aid, scholarships
• Personal preferences: weather, size, location,
distance from home, religious faith, etc.
• Bottom line: complex interplay of many
factors; very personal decision for student and
family.
Ultra-selective schools (cont.)
• One final question worth examining: Were any
students who did not meet the “elite” threshold
admitted to ultra-selective colleges?
• The answer is “Yes.” 7 students from 2012-2014
at: Columbia (3), Dartmouth, Cornell, Harvard,
and U. Penn. Three were recruited athletes; two
applied Early Decision; one was a highly-qualified
twin of an accepted brother; one was Native
American [with proper documentation (tribal
papers)]. However, it is important to note that
these students all had very respectable
credentials: collectively, 3.94 GPA, 32 ACT
Key trends
• Diversity. Diversity. Diversity.
– Not just ethnic diversity
– Gender balance, geography and first generation
college are also key factors
• Athletes and legacies get significant advantages
– Athletes are often admitted with academic
records well below the school norms
– Legacies tend to mirror the school norms but have
much higher admit rates
Key trends (continued)
• Yield management; early decision/early action may
be worth 100-150 points on the SAT
• Many schools are selecting for highly distinctive
applicants, not well-rounded ones
– Schools want well-rounded classes filled with
highly distinctive applicants-NACAC
• An emerging tilt toward engineering and hard
sciences at many highly selective universities
Caveats on Naviance statistics
• Naviance records the admissions results and
the GPA and test score distributions of SJ
applicants (not the entire student body of the
college)
• Information may not be representative when
sample sizes are small
– % admit rate is lumpy
– Average GPA/SAT may be skewed by a single
preference recipient
Naviance/Family Connection
scattergram
A competitive candidacy
Component
Transcript
Comment
• Strive for maximum rigor in course work
•“B” in an AP class is better than an “A” in
a regular class
• Calculus BC is a positive differentiator
Extracurricular • Selective schools discount gratuitous
Activities
“résumé building”
• Priority should be on consistency of
involvement and leadership
• Athletics are a strong positive even if
you won’t be a recruited athlete
A competitive candidacy (continued)
Component
Comment
Test Scores •Use the PSAT and Plan to prioritize your test prep
efforts
•Don’t go overboard on test prep at the expense of
coursework or extracurricular activities
•Have good scores in hand by the end of junior year
•Factor subject tests into your testing plan
Essays
• Write them during the summer before senior year
• Have a hook (e.g., start the essay in the middle of
the story in order to grab the reader’s attention)
Recs
Interviews
• Increasing in importance as competition intensifies
• Increasing in importance as competition intensifies
Schools where SJ students do very
well compared to the aggregates
• UT (non-automatic admission; Plan II; Honors
Engineering; Honors Business)
• Rice
• Notre Dame
• University of Virginia
• Georgetown
The Jesuit advantage
- Acceptance rates at Jesuit colleges
Institution
•
Overall
accept. rate
Jesuit HS
accept. rate
Strake Jesuit
accept. rate
Boston College 34%
48%
34%
Georgetown
17%
34%
43%
Holy Cross
43%
61%
63%
Loyola Chicago 54%
80%
89%
Marquette
57%
74%
78%
St. Louis Univ.
60%
93%
98%
Source: 2014 Enrollment Data from Conference of Jesuit Admissions Directors
(CJAD); Strake Jesuit acceptance rates based on 2007-2014 data.
Special issues
• Military academies have unique nominations process
– Congressional and Senate web sites have information
– Our students do very well in these processes
• Athletic recruiting
– Division I-A is driven largely by athletic ability. If recruited,
the vast majority of SJ students will qualify academically
even at highly selective schools like Rice or Vanderbilt
– Ivy League is a balance of ability and academics. Academic
requirements for athletes are much higher than D 1-A, but
valued athletes have a much easier path to admission
– Division III largely academic driven, but coaches often can
help applicants with demonstrated athletic ability to get an
edge in admissions