Question About Acceptance Rates

cfoley · Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:37 pm Post subject: Question About Acceptance Rates

I realize this question may not have an answer (or may not have one that is generally applicable), but I'm wondering anyone has any insight into rates of acceptance of realistically qualified candidates, as opposed to just overall rates of acceptance.

For example, Harvard has an acceptance rate of almost 14% (at least as reported by USNews and BusinessWeek). However, despite the somewhat prohibitive cost of applying to schools without a reasonable chance to get in, I imagine that at least some of the applicants to top schools in any given year are not well qualified (i.e. GMAT below 650, extremely limited or no professional experience, etc.). If these applicants were removed from the applicant pool, the acceptance rate from the remaining pool of well-qualified applicants would be higher than the overall reported acceptance rate.

So, I'm wondering if there is a generally consistent portion of applicants at top schools that are not actually qualified.

Have I explained my question well? Is there an answer? Any insight would be very much appreciated...

- Chris

molt_llest · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:17 am Post subject:

I'm also interested in this question

Lisa Anderson · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:31 am Post subject:

Dear cfoley,

Great question...and quite insightful. The answer is yes--a large percentage of the applicant pool for top schools are not "realistically qualified" as you state. It is great to have them in the applicant pool because it does allow a school to report a lower acceptance rate (thus making the program more selective/competitive). Most schools want to increase the size of their applicant pool each year, but specifically want to increase the number of "realistically qualified" applicants each year.

Best,
Lisa