Subcatergory Admit Rates for Colleges

There are a few little known but very significant differences in admissions stats at highly selective colleges.

It has been known for a long time that the admit rate at Columbia College and Columbia Engineering are very different. The admit rate for the college is 9% - very tough. The admit rate for engineering is less selective at 14% in 2009. As recently as 2006, this disparity was huge: 10% for the College and 24% for the Engineering school. So while Columbia College may be a reach school for certain students, Engineering would be a safety school for the same student. Historically Engineering students were known to be weaker than college students when they register for the same classes. The same disparity exist at Barnard and Columbia. The admit rate for Barnard is 28%. For female applicants, Barnard is a great backdoor to a great education because you get a Columbia education with a Columbia degree.

For other schools that do not publish their sub admit rates explicitly, it is still fairly well known that Harvard and Princeton Engineering schools are easier to get into than their liberal arts counterparts especially for girls. This is because their undergraduate engineering schools are not particularly strong. However, once your kid is admitted, they get to take the same classes from the same great professors as other students and at some of these schools it is quite easy to switch majors once in. Moreover, schools such as Harvard and Princeton give much more aid than other typical good schools. So while Harvard Engineering may not rate as highly as Georgia Institute of Tech, I would recommend applying to Harvard.

Another school with very disparate admit rates is Brown. The admit rate for girls is 9.8% in 2009 while it was 13.2% for boys. The reason is that many girls consider Brown the best Ivy for liberal arts and they all are drawn there.

These sub admit rates are much more relevant to selecting good reach/match/safety schools for your child because the aggregate admit rates may not give an accurate picture of the probability of admissions for your kid at any given school.