Selective College Admissions: A Four-Year Process Wednesday, October 28, 2015 Presenters: Miss Kyle Cortley, Rice University Mr. Tom Kulick Dr. Richard Clinton College Counselors, Strake Jesuit College Preparatory

St. Thomas Aquinas, Prayer Before Study Grant to me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret, and eloquence in speech. May You guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress, and bring it to completion. You Who are true God and true Man, Who live and reign, world without end. Amen

Agenda: Overview of selective schools Attributes of a competitive candidate Schools where our students do well Special issues Question & Answer Session

Overview Which schools are selective? How selective are they? What are the key trends and forces that impact most of the selective schools? A caveat about Naviance statistics

Lowest Acceptance Rates Source: U.S. News & World Report Many students aspire for admission to a prestigious college or university, but the supply of open seats often does not meet the demand from applicants. Earning admission to the schools on this list can be especially difficult. With the lowest acceptance rates among all undergraduate institutions surveyed by U.S. News, regardless of ranking category, the colleges and universities listed here are among the most selective, based on the Fall 2015 entering class.

Lowest Acceptance Rates (cont). InstitutionRateInstitutionRate Stanford University5.1%University of Pennsylvania10.4% Harvard University6.0%Claremont-McKenna College10.8% Yale University6.3%Duke University11.4% Columbia University7.0%Dartmouth College11.5% Princeton University7.4%Pomona College12.2% U.S. Naval Academy7.9%Northwestern University13.1% M.I.T.7.9%Vanderbilt Univ.13.1% Brown University8.7%Cornell University14.2% Cal. Tech8.8%Johns Hopkins15.0% University of Chicago8.8%Rice University15.1% U.S. Military Academy9.5%Cooper Union15.1%

Lowest Acceptance Rates (cont). InstitutionRateInstitutionRate Univ. California - Berkeley16.0%Washington & Lee19.6% U.S. Air Force Academy16.6%Notre Dame21.1% Swarthmore College17.0%Davidson College21.7% Washington U. – St. Louis17.1%Carleton College22.8% Middlebury College17.2%Vassar College23.5% Tufts University17.3%Wesleyan University23.9% Georgetown University17.4%Carnegie Mellon24.6% Colorado College17.9%Kenyon College25.1% Univ. Southern California18.0%Colgate University26.2% U.S. Coast Guard Academy18.1%Emory University26.8% UCLA18.6%Tulane28.0% Williams College19.3%University of Virginia29.0%

Tonight’s definition of selectivity Average GPA of an accepted SJ applicant is 3.8 or higher There are 52 schools that meet that criteria and to which at least 8 students have applied over the past four classes There are other schools of comparable selectivity but to which our students do not apply regularly

New England Harvard MIT Brown Tufts Williams Amherst Boston College Dartmouth Yale Middle Atlantic Columbia Cornell NYU RPI Naval Academy Swarthmore Lehigh Johns Hopkins Georgetown Princeton Penn Villanova Carnegie Mellon Southeast Virginia WakeForest N. Carolina Duke Wash& Lee Ga Tech Emory Vanderbilt Georgia Wm & Mary UT Rice Midwest Chicago Michigan Wash U Illinois Notre Dame Northwestern Case Western Carleton Colorado School of Mines California UCLA USC Stanford CalTech Santa Clara UC Berkley UC San Diego UC Santa Barbara 52 schools: 2 or more SJ applicants per year average accepted GPA > 3.8 Washington

Bands of selectivity within this sample 1.Extraordinarily difficult without a preference; our most outstanding candidates often face low probabilities – Ivy League; Stanford; Cal Tech/MIT; Duke 2.Highly selective but accessible to strong students with strong applications – Most common: UT; Rice; Notre Dame; BC – Many others including USC; Vanderbilt; Georgetown; Chicago; Service Academies 3.Very likely admission for strong students – Many including Tulane; Georgia Tech; Case Western; Michigan

Illustration: ultra-selective schools GPASAT-1600Sub Test Avg APs taken Average profile of students admitted without preferences

Ultra-selective schools (cont.) Schools: IVYs and less than 12% acceptance rate Student Profile: 4.2+ GPA, SAT-1450+; 33+ ACT # of students12 # applying to ultra-selective 8 # admitted to ultra-selective 3 (38%) # of students18 # applying to ultra-selective 14 # admitted to ultra-selective 6 (43%) # of students 20 # applying to ultra-selective 13 # admitted to ultra-selective 5 (38%)

Ultra-selective schools (cont.) : 50 students applied to ultra- selective schools, 14 were accepted (28%) Which ultra-selective schools are these 14 SJ students currently attending? ColumbiaCornell DartmouthDuke (5) HarvardYale * adds up to 10 students (more on this in a moment)

Ultra-selective schools (cont.) : 50 students applied to ultra- selective schools, 14 were accepted (28%) Of the 36 students who were not accepted, where did they end up going? Univ of. Texas at AustinTexas A&M Rice UniversityUniv. of Southern California GeorgetownUniversity of Virginia Univ. of MichiganVanderbilt Pomona CollegeWashington U. – St. Louis

Selective Schools where SJ students fare well: 3-year SJ acceptance rates ( ) vs national admit rate Rice - 31% (15%)Notre Dame – 31% (21%) Virginia – 31% (29%)Vanderbilt – 15% (13%) Georgetown- 38% (17%)USNA – 27% (8%) Wash U - 26% (17%)

Ultra-selective schools (cont.) Finally, did all students who were accepted at an ultra-selective institution end up at that school? While most did, there were a few exceptions; for example: One student chose Wash. U over Cal Tech Another chose Boston College over Princeton Shows that there are many other factors at play; not simply rank and selectivity (cont.  )

Ultra-selective schools (cont.) Other factors may include: Financial – cost, financial aid, scholarships Personal preferences: weather, size, location, distance from home, religious faith, etc. Bottom line: complex interplay of many factors; very personal decision for student and family.

Ultra-selective schools (cont.) One final question worth examining: Were any students who did not meet the “elite” threshold admitted to ultra-selective colleges? The answer is “Yes.” 11 students from at: Columbia (3), Dartmouth, Cornell, Harvard, and U. Penn (3), and Claremont-McKenna (2). For example, three were recruited athletes; two applied Early Decision; one was Native American [with proper documentation (tribal papers)]; another was a Questbridge scholar who met those specific academic and income requirements. However, it is important to note that these students all had very respectable credentials: collectively, 3.97 GPA, 32 ACT

Key trends Diversity. Diversity. Diversity. – Not just ethnic diversity – Gender balance, geography, and first generation college are also key factors Athletes and legacies get significant advantages – Athletes are often admitted with academic records well below the school norms, if they are being actively recruited. – Legacies tend to mirror the school norms but have much higher admit rates

Key trends (continued) Yield management; early decision/early action may be worth points on the SAT Many schools are selecting for highly distinctive applicants, not well-rounded ones – Schools want well-rounded classes filled with highly distinctive applicants-NACAC An emerging tilt toward engineering and hard sciences at many highly selective universities

Caveats on Naviance statistics Naviance records the admissions results and the GPA and test score distributions of SJ applicants (not the entire student body of the college) Information may not be representative when sample sizes are small – % admit rate is lumpy – Average GPA/SAT may be skewed by a single preference recipient

Naviance/Family Connection scattergram

A competitive candidacy ComponentComment Transcript Strive for maximum rigor in course work “B” in an AP class is better than an “A” in a regular class (caveat: for this caliber of schools, “B’s” aren’t really an option) Calculus BC is a positive differentiator Extracurricular Activities Selective schools discount gratuitous “résumé building” Priority should be on consistency of involvement and leadership Athletics are a strong positive even if you won’t be a recruited athlete

A competitive candidacy (continued) ComponentComment Test Scores Use the PSAT to prioritize your test prep efforts Don’t go overboard on test prep at the expense of coursework or extracurricular activities Have good scores in hand by the end of junior year Factor subject tests into your testing plan Essays Write them during the summer before senior year Have a hook (e.g., start the essay in the middle of the story in order to grab the reader’s attention) Recs Increasing in importance as competition intensifies Interviews Increasing in importance as competition intensifies

Schools where SJ students do very well compared to the aggregates UT (non-automatic admission; Plan II; Honors Engineering; Honors Business) Rice Notre Dame University of Virginia Georgetown

The Jesuit advantage - Acceptance rates at Jesuit colleges Source: 2014 Enrollment Data from Conference of Jesuit Admissions Directors (CJAD); Strake Jesuit acceptance rates based on data. InstitutionOverall accept. rate Jesuit HS accept. rate Strake Jesuit accept. rate Boston College34%48%35% Georgetown17%34%42% Holy Cross43%61%62% Loyola Chicago54%80%90% Marquette57%74%80% St. Louis Univ.60%93%97%

Special issues Military academies have unique nominations process – Congressional and Senate web sites have information – Our students do very well in these processes Athletic recruiting – Division I-A is driven largely by athletic ability. If recruited, the vast majority of SJ students will qualify academically even at highly selective schools like Rice or Vanderbilt – Ivy League is a balance of ability and academics. Academic requirements for athletes are much higher than D 1-A, but valued athletes have a much easier path to admission – Division III largely academic driven, but coaches often can help applicants with demonstrated athletic ability to get an edge in admissions