Acceptance Rates

[alexis]

I've noticed that in my field, it seems only the "top" PhD programs publish acceptance rates, usually in the 8-10% range. (I know other disciplines can be even lower, I've seen 1-3% on here, which is just insane!)

It got me thinking, though, about the lower-ranked programs. They don't seem to publish their acceptance stats, and they just say that admission is "highly competitive." This leads me to believe that they probably have a higher acceptance rate than top programs, since they clearly get less applicants, though still have a decent number of slots. I'm just trying to figure out how high they could be...15%? 20%? 30% or more? (Or is this just wishful thinking...) I have no idea; I can't find any stats online. I know that it's highly discipline, school, program, specialization within the program, and even individual faculty specific. I know you guys probably don't know either, just curious what others think about this. (Translation: I need something to think about during the waiting period, even though I'll never really know the answer )

Edited December 14, 2009 by alexis

[Victorianna]

I've noticed that in my field, it seems only the "top" PhD programs publish acceptance rates, usually in the 8-10% range. (I know other disciplines can be even lower, I've seen 1-3% on here, which is just insane!)

It got me thinking, though, about the lower-ranked programs. They don't seem to publish their acceptance stats, and they just say that admission is "highly competitive." This leads me to believe that they probably have a higher acceptance rate than top programs, since they clearly get less applicants, though still have a decent number of slots. I'm just trying to figure out how high they could be...15%? 20%? 30% or more? (Or is this just wishful thinking...) I have no idea; I can't find any stats online. I know that it's highly discipline, school, program, specialization within the program, and even individual faculty specific. I know you guys probably don't know either, just curious what others think about this. (Translation: I need something to think about during the waiting period, even though I'll never really know the answer )

Peterson's has some acceptance rates. link (http://www.petersons.com/) Hope that this helps

[Sparky]

Peterson's, though, usually conflates the acceptance rates for the MA and Ph.D programs. Which, at some schools, can have a WICKED effect. (I know the site allows you to select which degree, but I think that only has to do with which schools show up in the results). For the program I am currently attending, averaging in the MA acceptance rate bumps it up 15%, as there are two MA programs within the department, one of which is not selective at all.

Also, most of the figures on that side predate the current financial meltdown. A lot of them are now significantly lower.

ETA: Yeesh, sorry to be so depressing...hmm...how to contribute something helpful...ooh! Maybe, check the website for the professional associations for your field? The list of graduate departments on the AAR (American Academy of Religion) site gives acceptance rates for a bunch of programs, although the major history organization's site doesn't.

Edited December 14, 2009 by Sparky

[ridgey]

Every state school I've looked at has uni-wide admissions information hidden in the depths of their website. It can be in things like Graduate School Annual Report Year-Year, or other even more obscure places. I think the majority of public schools are probably required to report such things (they have to report professors' salaries and other more sensitive info) so if you have the time you can find out.

For private schools, you may be right that the likelihood of them reporting admissions statistics is inversely proportional to their prestige.

[NeuroNerd86]

Very true. I turned the web upside down trying to find anything about admission statistics for the Rockefeller University, and to no avail. All I know is that everyone I know who applied there got rejected 0_o

[socialcomm]

You could also take a look at the number of current students in each cohort to get a general idea of how many people they look for. (obviously different than the number of offers they give out though)

[twocosmicfish]

Acceptance rates are only really straightforward for the top schools, where 90%+ of accepted applicants actually enroll. For all the other schools, they accept a lot of students who are well-qualified but were not realistically going to enroll. This would make their acceptance rates look deceptively high. For example, a given school might accept 25% but only enroll 5% as the other 20% go to "better" schools.

Given that most schools have this issue, the acceptance rate begins to mean little, and does little to differentiate between different qualities of schools. For example, the 100th best school might have an enrollment rate of 5%, just like the 2nd best, but that does little to describe the quality of the applicants - the 100th best school is taking 5% of a very weak pool. For that matter, acceptance rates are often skewed by non-academic issues - schools in unpleasant climates get fewer applicants than equally strong schools in CA, FL, and HI, but does that really make them more competitive?

[Serric]

For that matter, acceptance rates are often skewed by non-academic issues - schools in unpleasant climates get fewer applicants than equally strong schools in CA, FL, and HI, but does that really make them more competitive?

Good thing I love cold weather and find the Midwestern winters attractive!

[cogneuroforfun]

Acceptance rates are only really straightforward for the top schools, where 90%+ of accepted applicants actually enroll.

I just wanted to mention that in graduate schools, I don't think any school is anywhere near 90% enrollment of accepted students. The Yale BBS umbrella program is something like 1/3. Other factors like fit and potential advisors are too important for "top" schools to get such high enrollment numbers, I think. You may interview at the #1 through 5 ranked schools, but find your potential advisor at the #10 school is too good to turn down. I think that probably keeps people from automatically accepting an acceptance from a "top" school.

[jacib]

I just wanted to mention that in graduate schools, I don't think any school is anywhere near 90% enrollment of accepted students. The Yale BBS umbrella program is something like 1/3. Other factors like fit and potential advisors are too important for "top" schools to get such high enrollment numbers, I think. You may interview at the #1 through 5 ranked schools, but find your potential advisor at the #10 school is too good to turn down. I think that probably keeps people from automatically accepting an acceptance from a "top" school.

In the Social Sciences, its neither 1/3 nor 9/10's. Let's look at some Sociology programs:

Berkeley (USNWR #1, NRC #3) says:

How many students apply? How many are admitted? How many come?

For the last 3 years, on average, we've had 380 applications, admitted 34, 16 came.

Northwestern (USNWR #9, NRC # 9) (which fully funds all its students) says:

4: How many are admitted to your program each year?

We usually admit about 25 people each year. Our goal is to have a cohort size of 13. (applicants last year: 232)

I can't find the page for Columbia (USWR #11, NRC #16), but I want to to say it was approximately 270-290 applications per year over the past two or three years, around twenty-something admits, cohort size somewhere between 9-13.

So they all seem to have a 7-11% acceptance rate and about a 50% yield, though I'd suspect those rates would be slightly lower and higher respectively at a private school ranked higher than Columbia or Northwestern since private schools tend to offer better funding/demand less teaching. I should point that among private schools, only Chicago, Harvard, Princeton, Penn, and Stanford were ranked higher than EITHER Northwestern or Columbia in EITHER the USNWR's or the NRC's ranking. I would theorize that yield is also slightly lower at a school like Madison which is not in a total sweet city; the reciprocal of this phenomenon would also explain Columbia's higher than expected application number, seeing as most people view New York as a very sweet place to live* and a very easy place for a partner to find something to do. I'd guess that these general numbers would hold true for all of schools in the top ten or so of either list, though not necessarily for all the Social Sciences. Political Science is more competitive, but also has professional degrees to screw everything up. I don't make claims for the Humanities at all.

*Anyone who grew up in Boston will attest that this view is erroneous, and that Jeter swallows.

[Serric]

Useful websites for Minnesota and Duke:

http://www.grad.umn.edu/programs/select_program.html?l=t

and

http://gradschool.duke.edu/about/stats.php

Plus, if you go to the FAQ of most programs, you'll get an approximate applicants vs. those admitted. It won't list as detailed stats as these two, but it will help.

[twocosmicfish]

I just wanted to mention that in graduate schools, I don't think any school is anywhere near 90% enrollment of accepted students. The Yale BBS umbrella program is something like 1/3. Other factors like fit and potential advisors are too important for "top" schools to get such high enrollment numbers, I think. You may interview at the #1 through 5 ranked schools, but find your potential advisor at the #10 school is too good to turn down. I think that probably keeps people from automatically accepting an acceptance from a "top" school.

There are some up there - Electrical Engineering at MIT typically enrolls all of their initial offers.