College Admissions Rates Drop For The Class Of 2015

College admissions rates for the class of 2015 fell across the board, figures released this week show.

Harvard University saw its acceptance rate drop to an all-time low of 6.2 percent from a record-setting pool of 35,000 applicants.

Columbia University, which saw its applicant pool balloon by 32 percent this year, accepted a mere 6.4 percent of prospective students. As the Columbia Spectator points out, that rate is lower than Harvard's overall acceptance rate from last year, which was 6.92 percent.

Rounding out the top five most competitive schools are Stanford University, with a 7.1 percent acceptance rate; Yale University, at 7.4 percent, and Princeton University, 8.4 percent.

Below, see the acceptance rates of 17 highly selective colleges. We'll be updating this slideshow as more numbers come in.

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Comments

[Tiger Moms Network]

09:24 AM on 04/15/2011

Among 1,795 people polled online by China Youth Daily's social research center, 94.9 percent said they know women who are strict mothers, and 55.1 percent said they see merit in Chua's parenting. A majority of the respondents, 63.8 percent, said they are parents themselves, and 41.5 percent said they were born in the 1980s.

http://globalelites.net/daily-newsfeed/21-survey-says-that-tiger-moms-popular-in-china.html

[ILB]

10:39 AM on 04/15/2011

Great. We get it. Thanks.

Commence eye rolling...now.

[realpragmatist]

12:25 PM on 04/15/2011

I agree 100% with your comment.

"Battle hym of the Tiger Mom" made interesting reading but this has resulted in this "Tiger Moms Network" user blowing the Chinese horn to an annoying extent. I want to keep quiet and read this user post all the amusing and childish "how everything Chinese is great" comments, from Chinese superior native intelligence, to superior Chinese parenting, to even better human rights in China!. We need something to amuse ourselves right?

[Tiger Moms Network]

09:23 AM on 04/15/2011

Suicides in the United States ebb and flow with the economy, rising in bad times and falling in good, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

http://globalelites.net/daily-newsfeed/22-us-suicides-rise-fall-with-economy-cdc-report.html

[jME]

07:20 PM on 04/12/2011

The Common Application has changed college admission stats. Kids can now apply to 10 colleges with the click of their mouse. Of course there are schools that require supplemental applications, but overall kids are applying on average to 15-20 schools. Colleges love this. The lower your acceptance rate, the more prestigious you appear.
It is so easy to get caught on the application crazy train. The best advice my child ever received came from an admissions officer....Don't overload yourself with extra curricular activities in high school. Colleges are looking for rigor in your academic courses(they know which high schools are the most rigorous) and consistency in your activities. It is better to stick to a few activities(& sports) consistently for 4 years than to over load yourself with a slew of insignificant activities that don't tell admissions anything about who you are. You also have a better chance if you apply for binding early admission.

[Helen Carpenter]

05:04 PM on 04/20/2011

Most schools with these low admissions rates in the slideshow above require pretty extensive supplements. Even using the Common App, applying to 15 schools takes a lot of time and effort. We just expect our students to spend more time on college apps (and apply to more schools) now than ever before

[BikerDad888]

02:45 PM on 04/11/2011

Students always have a list on what schools they want to go to. Many of them prefers the schools that have prestige on it like the Ivy League Schools - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, and et.al. Some prefers the school where their parents went to partly maybe because their parents want them to go there or how good the car "decal" will look on their car! http://universityadmissionsguide.com

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

01:43 PM on 04/08/2011

With apologies, I am responding to the article above on declining admissions rates for top flight U.S. colleges and universities, even though I teach at a California community college. I have to share with Huffposters that, while CC's are virtually open admission to anyone who wishes to attend, given state budget reductions, the situation for the 2011-2012 academic year promises to be catastrophic for beginning freshmen.

Generous CC admissions policies mask the reality of freshmen who enroll and then find required courses, like developmental studies or composition, already filled to capacity, with wait lists of 10 for each course, and around 5 undocumented, desperate, pleading students hovering outside each classroom, anxiously hoping that some registered students will not appear during the first week.

It is estimated that California community colleges will have to turn away as many as 140,000 aspiring students, some of whom may be forced into for-profit educational mills, whose prices are quite high ( 16 X the tuition of a local CC ), but whose standards are quite lax.

[Drsd]

11:58 AM on 04/07/2011

I would add that it was also disheartening to witness what some parents have put their children through to get into top schools, pushing continual resume building and pursuit of awards, cultivating narcissism, working the "bumps" like being first generation, urms, helping them with publishing research, having no time to develop their personalities or prosocial behavior, etc. Twisting and bending these kids to perform- much like foot-binding to you tiger moms who think this acceptable. We will see the results of all of this in the coming years.

[realpragmatist]

02:22 PM on 04/07/2011

I agree.

You can see here and in other forums how the "Tiger Mom" phenomenon is getting celebrated. The Chinese dragon way is been seen now as the "IT" happening thing, until it starts failing and affecting children psychologically. Not all children can accept the pressure, succeed and be happy and balanced as the Tiger Mom's eldest daughter.

I refused to pursue that option as I preferred my daughter to have a normal, happy, children, enjoying with her friends and senior family members. Whatever works, I guess, but there is no "Chinese way" one size fits all, in my personal opinion.

[Drsd]

04:30 PM on 04/07/2011

Eventually, this will be behind us, but I am glad that you shared that you felt "broken". We are parents who value education and both of us have doctorates, in fact. But cultivating integrity, values,compassion to others and valuing relationships is important as well as academic achievement. I do not want to support any school that does not have those values, not just paying lipservice to it. The college board, the schools, and all of the businesses surrounding them are all businesses at heart that market in ways to promote themselves. I have Chinese adult friends who were pushed in specific directions in the sciences and medicine, despite their true interests and suffered mental health problems later. Again, time will tell.

[Drsd]

11:11 AM on 04/07/2011

My child is a senior in high school who experienced many rejections for college admissions despite having 2250 SATs, 4.3 average and being a national merit scholar, among many other accomplishments. She and many of her friends worked extremely hard and became extremely stressed in this whole admissions process. I am now jaded and disheartened by what these talented and hard-woking kids went through, having seen how they have been manipulated by top schools.I can't express how sick I am of this system and only hope that they put it behind them once they are in college next year.

[realpragmatist]

02:17 PM on 04/07/2011

My comment got lost so will try again.

My daughter got admitted to Brown, Berkeley, Cornell, and Cambridge (UK) with 800,800,780 in SAT I and 800 in SAT Biology. She was rejected at MIT, Harvard, and Stanford.

She is balanced and not affected at all. Her teachers and her friends are sure that she will do well where ever she goes (got reagent scholarships in a couple of lesser but good Universities).
I am broken as a parent but she has taught me equanimity.

I am sure that your child has made you proud (my daughter saw and said she respects your child's accomplishments) and she will also do very well, Harvard or not. Best of luck.

[kidcurry]

07:15 PM on 04/07/2011

My child is also a senior in high school who has been adversely affected by this process. She currently is one of the top students in her class, working very hard to maintain a straight A average throughout her high school career. She has a resume filled with all the necessary accomplishments and received top recommendations from her teachers. The scores she posted on both the ACT and SAT exams were good but not in the range that most elite colleges require. She also felt she had to compete with her sister, who is currently a senior at Brown, and get into a top university also. Last fall as the final college application process approached, she tried to keep up with the rigorous AP course load she was told she needed to take to remain competitive and attempted to take the college entrance exams one final time to improve her scores. As a parent I stood by and allowed my amazing daughter to go through this as I watched her crash before my eyes with much guilt. Why are we allowing these top schools to manipulate the system? I frankly think that most of them are overrated and am grateful she was admitted to schools that I feel will provide her the opportunity to lead a more balanced life.

[Drsd]

01:28 AM on 04/08/2011

All the best to her and to all of the seniors who entered into this frenzy. If you look at the stats for Brown and other schools, they post how many applications they have received for each of the last several years. There is a huge slope upward and fear is driving this. The common app alone is not the only factor, since these schools have extensive supplemental apps as well. It is a business draining the life out of our youths.

[Tiger Moms Network]

06:52 PM on 04/05/2011

Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld Admitted by Harvard, proving wrong most American parents' point that Tiger Cubs under Tiger Mom's discipline and hard work only have proficiency without critical thinking and creativity.

http://blog.tigermoms.net/2011/03/sophia-chua-rubenfeld-admitted-by.html

[realpragmatist]

02:28 PM on 04/07/2011

I am glad that you are happy about your Chinese way, but are you sure that her legacy did not play a part? OK, if you play at Carnegie hall at 14, you are good also by Harvard standards. THAT could be due to her Tiger Mom spartan upbringing. But she also has her Harvard Law School parents genes. It worked with Sophia. Another so called "Tiger Cub" without that background might break down and commit suicide, at worst.

I am not able to believe that the "Tiger Mom" way is going to work for every ordinary person, American or Chinese. Children need to have space, boundaries, and enjoy growing up as children. What happens to those who make those sacrifices and do not get into elite colleges? It is then a loss-loss preposition.

Let this not distract from the fact that this tiger cub has accomplished incredible things. Playing at Carnegie at 14 is more impressive that her HY admissions. All power to her and the entire tiger clan.

[Tiger Moms Network]

06:52 PM on 04/05/2011

What Music can Make Kids More Creative/Intuitive and Psychologically Healthier, Developing an Advanced Right Brain instead of only Left-Brained People? Ironically, Mandarin has Made Chinese Develop a More Advanced Right Brain than Americans as a Whole.

http://blog.tigermoms.net/2011/04/what-music-can-make-kids-more-creative.html

[nehpets]

05:29 PM on 04/03/2011

Any word on transfer rates? Are more people applying for transfer at top schools this year? Should we expect transfer admission rates to drop too?

[Kendra J Williams]

04:40 PM on 04/03/2011

And yet, a good bit of colleges in MS remain at a pretty decent size. Unless you're Ole Miss or MSU when you accept too many people and push the upperclassmen out (or off campus at least). Then again, I don't know too many people who would want to go to school here.