Washington and Lee Admission

Washington and Lee Admission September 25, 2013 What would George Washington have to say about the practices of the Washington Lee admissions office? A couple of days ago, we wrote about an article that appeared in The Washington Post in which Washington and Lee University is called out by writer Nick Anderson for manipulating their admissions data by counting incomplete applications. In this way, the school would naturally have a lower selectivity figure. To help you further understand, if 5,000,000 students applied to Hofstra and they admitted 1,000 applicants, Hofstra would be more selective than Harvard. In college admissions, quantity counts for something and thats why many highly selective schools recruit students who they have no intention whatsoever of ever admitting. If you scroll down to the Comments section of our previous blog on Washington and Lee, youll notice a commenter who criticizes us for singling out Washington and Lee. We didnt single them out. They got caught red-handed manipulating admissions data and were the subject of an article in one of Americas most respected newspapers. We even stated that Washington and Lee isnt alone in manipulating data like this. Anyhow, in a follow-up to the piece in The Washington Post entitled On college admission rates, batting averages and the comparability of statistics,  Nick Anderson compares the college admissions process and admission rates in particular   to baseball and, more specifically,  to batting averages. But the problem is that while we know how to calculate batting averages, there is more grey area when it comes to admission rates.   As he so states, There is no universally recognized rule for the definition of applicant. There is a federal definition with built-in wiggle room, there is a very similar guideline for reporting to market analysts, there are interpretations — but no hard-and-fast rules. That means college-bound students cannot really know whether one school’s admission rate is comparable with another’s. In other words, some schools count incomplete applications as applicants, while others dont. Washington Lee surely isnt alone in counting incomplete applications. Should there be a standard by which all colleges must follow in the future? Let us know your thoughts on the subject by posting below.