50-50 Highlights: College Acceptance Rates – Do It Yourself College Rankings

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There’s a widely held belief that the harder it is to get into a college, the better the college must be. After all Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and Yale all have acceptance rates of less than ten percent and look how good they are. Or are they good because they have acceptance rates of less than ten percent?

Okay, let’s just say that these schools are in a class of their own and not bother with the chicken and the egg argument. But what about the other 1,500 or so colleges and universities, can we make any assumptions about quality based on college acceptance rates?

Apparently the people who do the US News College Rankings don’t think so. In their latest methodology, college acceptance rates counts for only 10% of the 12.5% student selectivity category. That means that acceptance rates contribute only 1.25% to a schools overall ranking. Doesn’t make it seem like it would be a major issue in the admissions/rankings/prestige race.

But apparently it is.

This past fall, the Washington Post found that Washington and Lee University was claiming a 19% acceptance rate when it should have been 24%. Why would an admittedly elite university decide to use a “looser” definition to inflate its admission rates which it claims it has no interest in doing?

I suspect there’s a lot more status tied up in admission rates at any level than most people are willing to admit. On College Confidential, one member insisted that the college acceptance rates I had posted for the University of Wisconsin were wrong since they were in the upper 60’s and they should have been in the lower 50’s as reported by the school.

The fact is that the school was reporting the lower rate on its own website and as part of the Common Data Set but a different rate to IPEDS (You’ll learn how to use the Common Data Set in the Cutting Costs of College Class). So was the member upset because I was suggesting that the actual rate was higher or that? the school was promoting the more favorable of the two rates?

Ultimately, comparing acceptance rates has serious limitations. Of the 63 four-year institutions for 500 or more full-time undergraduates and admission rates between 35% and 45%, the graduation rate ranged from 12% to 93% with 24 of them less than 50%. The average SAT scores (CR+M) were between 814 to 1430.

And yet here I go listing schools by acceptance rates. The first list is for those who value some element of exclusivity and contains? 50-50 schools that accept 55% or less of its applicants. The second list contains the 50-50 schools that accept at least 85% or more of its applicants. As usual the five-year rate is used for public institutions and the four-year rate is used for private colleges. You can see a video of how I selected the schools from the spreadsheet here.

50-50 Colleges with Lowest Acceptance Rates

Name	State	Type	Full-time Under- graduates	4/5 yr Grad Rate	% Admitted
Bethel University	TN	Private	3971	64	55
George Mason University	VA	Public	16304	59	55
Marquette University	WI	Private	7999	61	55
Millikin University	IL	Private	2141	54	55
Millsaps College	MS	Private	889	61	55
Montclair State University	NJ	Public	12524	57	55
Mount St Mary's University	MD	Private	1683	72	55
Rhodes College	TN	Private	1816	71	55
SUNY at Fredonia	NY	Public	5237	60	55
The Sage Colleges	NY	Private	1412	49	55
University of Dayton	OH	Private	7292	58	55
Bridgewater College	VA	Private	1637	52	54
Case Western Reserve University	OH	Private	3895	60	54
Florida State University	FL	Public	28864	71	54
Randolph-Macon College	VA	Private	1234	53	54
Sacred Heart University	CT	Private	3488	61	54
Santa Clara University	CA	Private	5128	77	54
Southern Methodist University	TX	Private	5974	60	54
University of Puget Sound	WA	Private	2620	67	54
College of Saint Elizabeth	NJ	Private	604	50	53
Cornell College	IA	Private	1185	65	53
Hobart William Smith Colleges	NY	Private	2225	69	53
North Carolina State University at Raleigh	NC	Public	22069	67	53
Queens University of Charlotte	NC	Private	1460	50	53
Salisbury University	MD	Public	7304	63	53
The University of Alabama	AL	Public	23945	61	53
University of North Carolina Wilmington	NC	Public	10851	64	53
Worcester Polytechnic Institute	MA	Private	3681	65	53
Bryan College-Dayton	TN	Private	1095	50	52
Elon University	NC	Private	5103	78	52
Maryland Institute College of Art	MD	Private	1807	65	52
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus	PA	Public	37727	84	52
The University of Texas at Dallas	TX	Public	9136	57	52
Towson University	MD	Public	15590	60	52
Whitworth University	WA	Private	2212	67	52
Converse College	SC	Private	626	58	51
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus	GA	Public	12701	72	51
SUNY at Albany	NY	Public	11925	63	51
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry	NY	Public	1628	65	51
SUNY College of Technology at Alfred	NY	Public	3277	67	51
Syracuse University	NY	Private	13987	70	51
Denison University	OH	Private	2264	76	50
Emmanuel College	MA	Private	1784	54	50
Loyola Marymount University	CA	Private	5818	67	50
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	MN	Public	29194	67	50
West Chester University of Pennsylvania	PA	Public	11635	65	50
Azusa Pacific University	CA	Private	5129	50	49
Boston University	MA	Private	16722	65	49
Whitman College	WA	Private	1566	80	49

50-50 Colleges with Highest Acceptance Rates

Name	State	Type	Full-time Under- graduates	4/5 yr Grad Rate	% Admitted
Kansas State University	KS	Public	17245	49	99
The Evergreen State College	WA	Public	4090	51	98
Huntington University	IN	Private	1046	50	97
Martin Luther College	MN	Private	679	53	97
Keiser University-Ft Lauderdale	FL	Private	10511	60	96
University of Kansas	KS	Public	17665	55	93
South Dakota State University	SD	Public	8812	54	92
Wittenberg University	OH	Private	1792	66	91
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences	MA	Private	1734	55	90
Arizona State University	AZ	Public	50484	52	89
Elmira College	NY	Private	1161	56	89
Missouri University of Science and Technology	MO	Public	5143	61	89
Simpson College	IA	Private	1395	63	89
University of Scranton	PA	Private	3875	65	89
Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Dubois	PA	Public	602	55	88
Southwestern College	KS	Private	578	49	88
University of Dallas	TX	Private	1332	63	88
University of Maine at Farmington	ME	Public	2069	56	88
University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown	PA	Public	2849	56	88
Columbus College of Art and Design	OH	Private	1289	56	87
Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Hazleton	PA	Public	1108	49	87
University of St Thomas	MN	Private	5874	61	87
Bellarmine University	KY	Private	2289	51	86
Iowa State University	IA	Public	23103	63	86
University of New England	ME	Private	2166	51	86
University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg	PA	Public	1692	49	86
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay	WI	Public	4643	50	86
Drew University	NJ	Private	1661	61	85
Hope College	MI	Private	3127	69	85
Moody Bible Institute	IL	Private	2300	55	85
Pacific University	OR	Private	1537	53	85
Saint Mary's College	IN	Private	1499	73	85
Sonoma State University	CA	Public	7053	51	85
Transylvania University	KY	Private	1005	66	85
University of Nebraska at Kearney	NE	Public	4762	52	85
University of Rhode Island	RI	Public	11672	59	85
West Virginia University	WV	Public	21140	52	85

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50-50 Colleges with Lowest Acceptance Rates

50-50 Colleges with Highest Acceptance Rates

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