In this week’s Bloggerheads, Emily Tamkin and Angela Radulescu discuss the topic of admissions.
Emily: Hi, Angela! So everybody (a term here used to mean "you know, some people") is all excited and/or up in arms about the all-time low acceptance rate (6.4 percent for Columbia College, and 6.9 percent overall). Personally, I'm not sure that this is a good thing. At all. But for now, I'm going to throw out a question. We were talking earlier about whether or not students care about this once they come to campus. But really, why does ANYONE care about this? Because it makes a school prestigious? Does it, really? And if you (a term here used to mean "the admissions offices") care about seeming prestigious based on a number, why don't they throw out median or mean grade point averages or SAT scores or something? Even the change in percent accepted from the year before? Why do schools release the percent accepted, and why, do you think, are people so hung up on it?
