7 Reasons Why College Acceptance Rates Can Be Deceiving

When trying to decide whether their child should apply to a particular college, many families immediately look at a school’s acceptance rate, which measures the percentage of applicants who were offered admission in any given year.

Acceptance rates provide useful information about a school’s selectivity, and many families prioritize colleges with lower acceptance rates, seeing them as more desirable. However, acceptance rates are not as simple as they seem: they can be influenced by everything from application requirements to major choice. Before using acceptance rates to build a college list or estimate your student’s chances, keep these seven factors in mind.

1. No Application Fee

Some colleges charge application fees, while others allow students to apply for free. Waiving the application fee makes applying easier, particularly for students who may be interested, but are not yet convinced that they want to attend. Not surprisingly, this can result in significantly more applications.

A college will not necessarily increase its class size in response to increased application volume. As a result, a surge in applications can cause the school’s acceptance rate to fall. When comparing colleges, look beyond the acceptance rate and consider what may be driving the number of applications.

2. No Supplemental Essays

A college choosing to eliminate supplemental essays from their application will see a similar effect. When adding a college to a student’s application list requires little more than checking another box on the Common App, there is very little stopping a student from applying.

A thoughtful supplemental essay requires students to put in time and effort, leading some applicants to self-select out. When a college does not require a supplement, it can attract applicants with varying levels of interest. Keep this in mind when comparing its acceptance rate to that of a school that requires additional essays.

3. Test-Optional Admissions

Test-optional admissions policies have also expanded the pool of students who feel comfortable applying to many colleges. A student who might once have decided against applying because their SAT or ACT score fell below a college's published range can now submit an application without that score.

That increased access can be positive for students. However, rather than assuming a falling admit rate means that a college has become dramatically "better" or more academically selective, families should look at changes in application volume and admissions policies.

4. New to Common App

When a school first joins the Common App, there is normally a significant uptick in application volume, given that the Common App is one of the most accessible ways for students to apply to college. A more accessible application will naturally receive more interest.

Transitioning to Common App can cause a school's admission rate to drop dramatically overnight, even if nothing about the school itself has changed. This was the case for UGA, which saw a 40% increase in student applications after joining the Common App for the 2020–2021 admissions cycle. It is also why schools like MIT will likely never join the Common App: they get inundated with enough applications as it is.

5. Recruit to Deny

A more controversial practice in college admissions is known as "recruit to deny." Colleges may market themselves broadly to students whose chances of admission are extremely small, encouraging more students to enter the applicant pool even though many are unlikely to be admitted. The practice has received criticism because a larger applicant pool allows a college to reject more applicants and appear more selective.

It can be exciting to receive an email, brochure or recruitment message from a selective college. But students should not automatically interpret these marketing materials as evidence that the college considers them a strong applicant. The average student’s name is sold several times during their college search. This is a major source of revenue for the College Board and the ACT.

6. Consider Your Major

At colleges that admit by major, a student’s intended field of study can have a large impact on their acceptance chances. A college may have a higher overall acceptance rate, but a much lower acceptance rate for certain majors. In these cases, the general acceptance rate tells families very little about their student's actual odds.

For instance, during Purdue University’s most recent admissions cycle, the overall acceptance rate was 43.4%, but students applying to their competitive Professional Flight Technology program only had a 7.7% chance of admission.

7. Alternate Admission Programs

The headline acceptance rate may not always tell the whole story about how students enter a university. Some colleges offer alternative pathways in which students begin somewhere other than the university's primary campus or start at a different point in the academic year.

Northeastern is a good example. In addition to traditional entry at its Boston campus, the university offers students several first-year pathways, including N.U.in, London Scholars, and New York City Scholars. Northeastern reports its Boston-campus admission rate separately from these other enrollment options. When evaluating admissions statistics, make sure you understand exactly which students and programs are included in the number you're looking at.

Conclusion

Acceptance rates can be useful, particularly when families are trying to understand the general selectivity of different colleges. But they should be treated as one piece of information rather than a measure of a school's quality or a precise prediction of one student's chances. Application volume, admissions policies, intended major, institutional priorities, and enrollment strategy can all affect the number.

Families should consider their student's fit at that school to be the most important factor. Just because a school has a lower admit rate than another school does not mean it is a better school, or a better school for your child. In fact, a laser focus on the admit rate can cause families to overlook schools that would be a perfect match academically, socially, and financially. Ultimately, the “best” school is the one where your child will thrive—and that has nothing to do with how many applications a school rejects.