If you’re applying to college, you’ve likely come across the college acceptance rate statistic. You might also wonder why people make such a big fuss about this number. A school’s acceptance rate is just another number used in traditional ranking methodology, but its significance has been wildly overestimated.
So, should you pay attention to college acceptance rates during your college search? We don’t think so, and we’ll tell you why.
What Does Acceptance Rate Mean?
In simple terms, acceptance rate is the rate at which a given school accepts applicants. It’s the percentage of students that a school admits to their incoming class based on the total number of students that applied. Acceptance rate is calculated by dividing the number of accepted students by the total number of applications.
Two colleges can admit the same number of students but have completely different acceptance rates. Uh, what? Look at it this way: this year, Harvard accepted 2,056 out of 39,506 applications.Thus, 2,056 ÷ 39,506 = 5.2% acceptance rate. But if another school also accepted 2,056 students, but the number of applications they received was smaller, their acceptance rate would be higher.
Let’s test it. So, Mystery College received half of the amount of applications as Harvard but accepted the same number of students. 2,056 accepted students divided by 19,753 total applications = 10.4%. That’s still a low number, but it is double Harvard’s rate.
And the only thing that changed was the number of applications.
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Check Out These Good Universities with High Acceptance Rates: (all between 92-96%!)
The following are good Universities with a very high acceptance rate;
- University of Kentucky
- University of Kansas
- Kansas State University
- University of Wyoming
- University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
- University of Northern Colorado
- University of Montana
- Virginia State University
- North Dakota State University
- Western Kentucky University
There is a chance for you get into these schools with high acceptance with ease!
Finally, if a super high acceptance rate is important to you, we’ve compiled a list of the colleges with the top highest acceptance rates here. All schools listed have 99% acceptance rates:
- CUNY College of Staten Island in Staten Island, NY
- New England College in Henniker, NH
- Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA
- Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, LA
- Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Mississippi
- Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri
- Kettering College of Medical Arts in Kettering, OH
- Wright State University Lake Campus in Celina, OH
- Presentation College in Aberdeen, SD
- Adams State College in Alamosa, CO
While college acceptance rates can be important in your search for schools to apply to, there are other factors to consider. Remember, high college acceptance rates don’t always mean that a school has a less academically rigid program and there are many amazing schools with high acceptance rates!
