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Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

dailyprincetonian.com

21–30 of 227 posts

Re: Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

#21
Parsing through 37,601 (and accepting only 1500) applications without standardized testing sounds incredibly difficult.

If I were a teenager trying to get into a top school these days, my anxiety would be through the roof. Can't imagine the extracurricular work you have to put in now.

Re: Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

#22
post #13

It's a shame that we're here in 2021 and the best we can do is basically just "selection bias." Basically all universities have no statistical proof that they can educate people beyond this. This is not to say that the schools are bad, but most of the education is simply due to the types of peers you have, not really due to the school itself. Princeton and Harvard admit, for the most part, people who already excelled…

As a non-US citizen I was always surprised US universities doesn't require any examination test for the admission.

Huh? In general they do — either the SAT or the ACT. Only a few big universities don't require them (though COVID has led many/most to change their policies at least temporarily).

Re: Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

#23
post #4

So when we remove the legacies and school fund donators (roughly half) - about 40 to 50 percent of the class, athletes (affirmative action for rich whites with relatively lower credentials and scores) - about 10-20 percent of the class, and regular affirmative action ( about 15 percent of the class and mainly affluent politically connected blacks and latinos). The remainder is the group based on traditional credentia…

It is really uncomfortable to see how much in life depends on the choice of university and how much they have a say in arbitrarily selecting their students.

It would really be much better if lots of activities could be decoupled from universities instead of making them mini-nations where people live, find friends, do extracurriculares and everything else.

Re: Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

#24
post #13

It's a shame that we're here in 2021 and the best we can do is basically just "selection bias." Basically all universities have no statistical proof that they can educate people beyond this. This is not to say that the schools are bad, but most of the education is simply due to the types of peers you have, not really due to the school itself. Princeton and Harvard admit, for the most part, people who already excelled…

As a non-US citizen I was always surprised US universities doesn't require any examination test for the admission.

Most universities require either an ACT or SAT test score to prove your ability. These are not administered by universities, though.

Re: Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

#25
post #4

So when we remove the legacies and school fund donators (roughly half) - about 40 to 50 percent of the class, athletes (affirmative action for rich whites with relatively lower credentials and scores) - about 10-20 percent of the class, and regular affirmative action ( about 15 percent of the class and mainly affluent politically connected blacks and latinos). The remainder is the group based on traditional credentia…

>> and mainly affluent politically connected blacks and latinos Where in the world do you get that idea? I challenge you to provide a good source for the claim that the AA students are either affluent OR politically connected.

Spent a year at an Ivy League. I met dozens of affluent, politically connected racial minorities, mostly from Northeast prep schools. I met exactly 0 poor kids from the South, or inner city Chicago or Detroit, or some other such background. It was pretty obvious what was going on.

Re: Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

#26

It's a shame that we're here in 2021 and the best we can do is basically just "selection bias." Basically all universities have no statistical proof that they can educate people beyond this. This is not to say that the schools are bad, but most of the education is simply due to the types of peers you have, not really due to the school itself. Princeton and Harvard admit, for the most part, people who already excelled…

We do not need to find this randomized-admission institution for your analysis. Just take an Ivy and several state universities of different rankings, and pick students with similar high-school backgrounds (top grades, similar family net worth, etc.). Such students of similar capability must exist, unless we think top universities admit all the top students and there is no one left for lower-rank schools. Then analyz…

This is also ignoring the significant credit that having a "brand" name school as well as alumni network, like those in the Ivy League, has on one's job prospects. A significant portion of the value of one's graduation from these institutions is an affiliation with their name, which is more valuable than those of various (especially mid-tier) state schools.

Re: Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

#27
post #13

It's a shame that we're here in 2021 and the best we can do is basically just "selection bias." Basically all universities have no statistical proof that they can educate people beyond this. This is not to say that the schools are bad, but most of the education is simply due to the types of peers you have, not really due to the school itself. Princeton and Harvard admit, for the most part, people who already excelled…

As a non-US citizen I was always surprised US universities doesn't require any examination test for the admission.

[deleted]

Re: Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

#28

Parsing through 37,601 (and accepting only 1500) applications without standardized testing sounds incredibly difficult. If I were a teenager trying to get into a top school these days, my anxiety would be through the roof. Can't imagine the extracurricular work you have to put in now.

and surrounded by way more screens/extended screen-time as your brain tries to develop... arghhh

Re: Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

#29
post #13

It's a shame that we're here in 2021 and the best we can do is basically just "selection bias." Basically all universities have no statistical proof that they can educate people beyond this. This is not to say that the schools are bad, but most of the education is simply due to the types of peers you have, not really due to the school itself. Princeton and Harvard admit, for the most part, people who already excelled…

As a non-US citizen I was always surprised US universities doesn't require any examination test for the admission.

You may have received some incorrect information - US universities will require an SAT or ACT exam score and some programs will even require subject based exams (ex an SAT Math or Chemistry exam)

However at the differences at the top 5 or even 10% are marginal at best, and even the top 5% represent a more than magnitude of students than have slots at elite schools.

Re: Princeton admits record-low 3.98% of applicants

#30
post #24
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a non-US citizen I was always surprised US universities doesn't require any examination test for the admission.

Most universities require either an ACT or SAT test score to prove your ability. These are not administered by universities, though.

Not this year…

https://www.nytimes.com/article/sat-act-test-optional-colleg...

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