This Year's Admit Rates

...according to the Washington Post

The grand totals for this year’s Ivy League admissions are in. Of 253,472 applications for the Class of 2018, the eight private, prestigious and pricey schools known for a climbing vine gave a green light to 22,624.

Quick, get the calculator. The admission rate is 8.925641 percent, rounding to the nearest millionth of a percentage point.

Many of the nation’s college-bound students obsess over these numbers, with reason. Something about the Ivy League compels fascination even among students who haven’t applied to these venerable schools and never will. Collectively, the eight play an outsize role in shaping the image of American higher education around the world.

Do people pay too much attention to Ivy admission rates?

“Absolutely,” said Janet Lavin Rapelye, dean of admission at Princeton University. “It takes the focus off of what everybody should be focusing on, which is finding the right fit and finding the right match. The admit rate is just one of many, many measures that can happen in a year. But it doesn’t begin to explain or identify the best matches.”

For what it’s worth, Princeton put a news release headline on this year’s rate calculated to a hundredth of a point: 7.28 percent.

It’s worth noting that this super-low rate and others at ultra-selective schools are a function of a huge surge in applications. Princeton’s pool has nearly doubled in the past decade. Many applicants no doubt apply to more than one Ivy; some, to all eight.

“It is unfortunate that we contribute to this frenzy by the numbers we publish,” said an admissions veteran at a prestigious, non-Ivy League college who did not wish to be identified because he did not want to add to the hubbub.

Here is the skinny on Ivy numbers as the eight schools released admission decisions Thursday at 5 p.m. for the incoming freshman class.

To go easy on the eyes, we will round to the nearest tenth of a percentage point.

Brown University: 2,619 offers of admission out of 30,432 applications. Admission rate: 8.6 percent, down modestly.

Columbia University: 2,291 offers out of 32,967 apps. Rate: 6.9 percent, about the same as last year.

Cornell University: 6,014 offers out of 43,041 apps. Rate: 14.0 percent. The rate is down more than one percentage point because applications rose.

Dartmouth College: 2,220 offers out of 19,296 apps. Rate: 11.5 percent. Dartmouth’s admit rate edged up about a point because its total application pool shrank significantly — 14 percent — for reasons the college is still analyzing. It was described as the largest application drop for Dartmouth in 21 years.

Harvard University: 2,023 offers out of 34,295 apps. Rate: 5.9 percent, little changed.

Princeton University: 1,939 offers out of 26,641 apps. Rate: 7.3 percent, nearly the same as 2013.

University of Pennsylvania: 3,583 offers out of 35,868 apps. Rate: 10.0 percent. No, Penn’s rounded rate is not 9.9 percent, contrary to its news release. But the admit rate has fallen about two points because applications are on the rise.

Yale University: 1,935 offers out of 30,932 apps. Rate: 6.3 percent, a slight decline.

For the thousands who didn’t get in but were placed on waiting lists, here are a couple of statistics: Last year, 168 students made it into Cornell via the waiting list, out of more than 3,100 offered positions on the list. Dartmouth admitted 87, out of about 1,700 initial wait-list offers, and Princeton admitted 33 out of an initial 1,400.

By Nick Anderson, Published: March 28

College Board Announces Changes to SAT

"The SAT will modernize the vocabulary and math sections to reflect what a majority of students actually use. For students with low-income and first generation backgrounds, the new SAT should be a fairer test." - David Montesano

So what exactly will be changed? Find out here.

The SAT vs. The ACT and SuperScoring: How to Do It Right

Guest blogger and President at http:///www.TestPrepAuthority.com Anthony-James Green offers students some pertinent advice for the upcoming SAT and ACT season:

We all know that you can take the SAT and the ACT more than once.  For most students, taking these exams multiple times is a wise call, since as they continue to study, they continue to see score improvements.  But if you're one of many who's planning on taking multiple SATs or ACTs, make sure you know HOW your scores will be submitted to colleges when you take multiple tests.

The SAT SuperScore:

When you take the SAT more than once, you get the best of all three sections submitted to your colleges of choice.  Let's look at an example:

On your first SAT, you get a 750 in Math, but a 500 in Writing and a 500 in Critical Reading.

On your second SAT, you get a 680 in Math, a 600 in Writing, and a 410 in Critical Reading.

On your third SAT, you get a 710 in Math, a 580 in Writing, and a 610 in Critical Reading.

Your total score submitted will be: Math:750 Writing: 600 Critical Reading 610

Colleges do see that you've taken multiple tests, but at the end of the day, most of them don't care so much.  You obviously shouldn't take 14 SATs and expect universities not to notice, but if you take 2-3 exams, you'll probably be seriously boosting your chances of admission.

The ACT "SuperScore"

The "little cousin" of the SAT isn't quite as generous when it comes to retakes, but it's still very, very worth your time to repeat the ACT if you weren't happy with your first round of scores.

While ALL colleges take the best scores from each section of the SAT, on the ACT, most colleges just take your best overall score.  So if you take these two tests:

Test One:

Reading: 26
English: 20
Math: 20
Science:20
Comp: 21

Test Two:

Reading: 20
English: 22
Math: 25
Science: 28
Comp: 23

You're only getting a boost of two points, even though you did much, much better in multiple sections.  This is because the overall score on the ACT is calculated using a formula that's more complicated than simply adding the three 200-800 scores that you get on the SAT.

It's important to note that SOME colleges do "SuperScore" the ACT as well, and you'll need to call their admissions offices to find out whether or not they do.

You can find out the expected SAT and ACT scores of America's top colleges by using our free SAT/ACT score generator at any time.

What This Means For You:

Once you understand how multiple scores are combined, you have one big advantage: you'll know what to study before you take your second or third test.

On the SAT, focus specifically on your worst score and put ALL of your effort into it./ Of course, if you have something like a 520/510/530 split, then you can do an overall effort.  But if you have a 670/500/780, you should be putting almost all of your time into studying for the "500" section.  

Since you'll keep your old, good scores, you'll want to focus exclusively on bringing the bad sections up to par.

On the ACT, you'll need to focus on the entire test.  You'll still have the most room for improvement in your weakest areas, but you can't let everything else falter without risk.  Call your target schools and see if they SuperScore or not - if they do, you can treat your ACT just like an SAT, but if not, you need to be more holistic.

However, At the end of the day, you should still spend most of your time on your weakest areas, since that's where you have the most opportunity to improve.

Visit Anthony's website, Test Prep Authority, for more free SAT and ACT practice and advice .