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Many equate the acceptance rate to the quality of the school. As a result, they believe a school with a low acceptance rate is “good,” while one with a higher acceptance rate is “bad.” While college acceptance rates can help you understand how competitive a college is, it doesn’t always correlate to the quality of the education. In fact, “how good a college is” is completely subjective. A school might be excellent for one student and poor for the next. Here’s why you should look beyond the acceptance rate to determine whether the college is right for you.
What Is an Acceptance Rate for College?
An acceptance rate is the percentage of students who applied to a particular college and received an acceptance letter from said college. If 100 students applied and 20 were accepted, the college has a 20% acceptance rate.
The “yield” is the percentage of students who were accepted and decided to attend that particular school. The higher the yield percentage, the more students accepted the college’s offer. For instance, if 15 of those 20 accepted students decided to attend that school, it’s a 75% yield.
Why Do Acceptance Rates Matter?
Acceptance rates highlight how likely you are to be accepted to a school should you apply. However, the number alone doesn’t tell the whole story.
A 50% acceptance rate doesn’t mean you have a 50/50 chance of getting in. A student who has a 4.5 GPA and 32 ACT score is more likely to be accepted than someone who has a 3.8 GPA and a 28 ACT.
High grades and standardized test scores also don’t guarantee admission. Harvard University, Yale University, and the California Institute of Technology all have extremely low acceptance rates. Since they receive so many applications each year, they simply don’t have the space to admit every single qualified applicant.
What Affects a Student’s Chances of Acceptance?
Instead of simply focusing on the college’s acceptance rate, it’s important to look past the percent of accepted students and investigate what the college is looking for in an applicant.
Various elements can impact your chances of acceptance, depending on the college, such as:
- Intended major
- Extracurriculars, volunteer work, and work experience
- College essay
- Letters of recommendation
- Conduct
- Social media profiles
- Interview
- GPA
- Standardized test scores
- Location
- Religious affiliation
What Impacts a College’s Acceptance Rate?
There are three major factors that can impact a college’s acceptance rate.
Available Space Vs. Number of Applications
A school only has so much space in their dorm rooms and classrooms. A large university can accept more students overall than a smaller college. However, if the large university receives tens of thousands more applications than the smaller college, the large university may have the lower acceptance rate of the two.
Acceptance rates can also change year-to-year. If a college receives more applications this year than last year and doesn’t have additional space to house more students, the college’s acceptance rate will be lower this year.
Expected Yield
Based on previous year’s numbers, colleges can determine the expected yield – or the number of accepted students they expect to attend the following fall. If the school has a low yield, they will accept more students, as a high percentage of those accepted students won’t attend.
Here’s an example: This small college can admit around 1,000 first year students a year. Historically, the school has a 18% to 22% yield rate. Last year, 10,000 students applied, 50% were accepted, and 20% attended — or 5,000 students were accepted and 1,000 attended.
This year, the college received 15,000 applications, but they still only have room for 1,000 new students. Plus, the school still expects only 18% to 22% of students to accept their offer of admission. As a result, the number of accepted students stays roughly the same (5,000), but the overall acceptance rate drops from 50% to 33.3%.
Major
Some colleges have separate applications for specific majors due to high competition and extremely limited space. If you’re trying to get into an engineering or film program, especially one that is renowned, you’ll likely have a lower acceptance rate than the general applicant pool.
For example, Florida State University received around 74,000 applications in 2023 and accepted 25.2%. However, their film program requires a separate application – and the major only has enough room for 20 to 30 new students each year. Even though only a few hundred students may apply to the film program, the program has a much lower overall acceptance rate in comparison.
Are Colleges with High Acceptance Rates Bad?
No, colleges with high acceptance rates aren’t necessarily bad. And the colleges with low acceptance rates aren’t necessarily the best, either!
A college may have a high acceptance rate for a variety of reasons, including:
- The college is larger and has space for more students.
- It’s a public state college with a focus on better higher education access for in-state students.
- It’s a smaller school that receives only a handful of applications.
- They have a low yield rate and need to accept more students to fill up seats.
None of these four factors directly showcase a “bad” education, but instead tell stories about the size of the school, the number of applications it receives, or its yield rate.
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Should You Apply to Colleges with High Acceptance Rates?
Yes! You should apply to colleges with high acceptance rates, for two reasons:
It’s a Good Fit for You
Don’t be scared off from a college with a high acceptance rate simply because of the myth it isn’t as good as the one with the low acceptance rate. What matters is whether it’s a good college for you.
It’s important to compare your school options to determine what you’re looking for out of your education, your accomplishments, and where you’ll excel. You’ll also want to compare financial aid offers. A low acceptance rate doesn’t guarantee that college fits your needs, wants, and budget.
You Need Safety Schools
Even with a stellar GPA and perfect ACT/SAT score, you’re not guaranteed admission to Harvard, Yale, Caltech, MIT, or any of the other schools with extremely low acceptance rates. Your college list shouldn’t consist solely of colleges that accept fewer than 20% of students.
Instead, focus on creating a college list that has a balanced mix of reach, match, and safety schools.
Do Private Schools Have Lower Acceptance Rates Than Public Schools?
No, private schools don’t necessarily have lower acceptance rates than public colleges. It really depends on the school in question rather than public vs. private. For example, Eckerd College, a private school, has a 79% acceptance rate. SUNY at Albany, a public university, accepts 70%.
That said, some types of colleges have higher acceptance rates than others. Community colleges tend to accept all (or almost all) who apply. For-profit schools usually have an open admissions policy, which means they accept a majority of applicants.
When you start searching for colleges, it’s important to note the acceptance rate. However, don’t let that number dictate whether you should apply to that school. It never tells the full story, and you might miss out on the perfect fit for you if that school happens to have a high acceptance rate.
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