Not to mention truly frustrating to experience for some highly qualified students who apply to Vandy and get disappointing news.
What other institution has gone from admitting 46% to 14% in such a short span of time.
Not to mention also growing their application pool from 9,000+ to 28,000+.
It's a brave new world in highly selective college admissions.
A reality rife with vagaries that few really want to face or accept (these changes apply to everyone else but me).
I spoke, consequently, with our Vandy rep and he informed me that they are anticipating a 30,000+ pool this year.
And a 13% admit rate.
Gulp.
Just today, in fact, Vandy sent out its "Census Report" that contained interesting facts about their incoming admitted Class of 2016.
It caused me to think about our applicants this year, and which of them would qualify for which of the below categories, if any.
It's daunting to think about the credentials kids today must obtain to compete for a spot at a highly selective school.
If anything, this list below reinforces the weight that schools like Vandy put on leadership, excellence, passion, influence, and diversity...not to mention a high test score (wink wink).
- 98% held the highest level of leadership or scholarship, or were engaged in national-level honor societies: for instance, student body president, class president, student senator, editor-in-chief of school newspaper or yearbook, Eagle Scout, and National Honor Society
- 14% were student government leaders
- 49% held a service-related leadership position
- 67% were academic leaders
- 35% were athletic leaders or champions
- 21% demonstrated leadership in the fine arts
- Undergraduates represent 49 states and 44 countries
- 5.9% of students graduated from an international high school
- 65% of freshmen received financial assistance
- 13% of freshmen received Pell grants
- Of those from high schools that report class rank, over 90% of first-year enrolled students ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class
- Middle 50 percentile for SAT ……. 1400 – 1560
- Middle 50 percentile for ACT ……. 32 – 34
- National Merit Scholars…217
- National Achievement Scholars….19
So many admissible Ivy students are not getting admitted, which as a result, sends them looking for admission at the next bucket down.
Vandy then is getting Ivy admit credentials for their profile.
And it won't be long before SMU has a profile that looks more and more similar to a Yale and a Vanderbilt.
