Each year, University officials tell incoming students that this admissions class is the most competitive, and each year, they mean it. Such statements help build class solidarity and serve as well-deserved compliments. They also reflect the facts at hand - more students apply to the University at a rate outpacing its capacity for growth, causing a seemingly natural decline in the admissions rate. But a decreasing admissions rate should not be taken for granted, nor interpreted as making the University more competitive or its accepted applicants more qualified. A dropping admissions rate is a problem administrators should overcome, not celebrate.
"When the Class of 2016 arrives on Grounds in August, its members will likely be the best-qualified first-year students in the University of Virginia's history," according to a University press release. The article goes on to detail how the accepted students ranked in high school as well as their scores on standardized tests, finding "[t]hose scores are the highest ever...." Such claims in the article reveal less about admitted students and more about the high value the University places in its selectivity.
Admissions rates are not only hyped in the University community, however. U.S. News and World Report factors such data into its much-praised and much-maligned annual rankings of colleges. This evaluation calculates the admissions rate, along with average standardized test scores, into the category of a college's "student selectivity." The publication also lists the Top 100 lowest acceptance rates among institutions of higher education.
Because the U.S. News and World Report rankings are so influential, such statistics have led to fraudulent reporting of standardized test scores and increased admissions pressures among colleges. Also, the championing of such numbers gives significance to statistics which should not have any.
Drawing conclusions or rankings from admission numbers and test scores tells little of the caliber of the students or universities in question. Admissions officers have criteria, and the process is not subjective. But it is difficult to precisely map why students are admitted to a university. Emphasizing test scores of admitted students distorts what is often a holistic admissions process. There are also economic or social trends affecting the number of college applications, such as the fluctuations in institutions' reputations or the value of college altogether. Given this, it is misleading to say a school has become more competitive or its students more qualified because of admissions numbers.
For a University which ought to educate as many qualified and motivated students as possible, having to turn more applicants away is a challenge to be confronted. Gov. Bob McDonnell stated he wants to produce an additional 100,000 degrees in Virginia by 2025, and there are similar goals at the federal level. But such initiatives will remain out of reach if students are not given the opportunity to graduate.
The University should not hide these admissions numbers altogether - the admissions office is responsible for informing prospective students of their chances. Yet there is a way to talk about selectivity without praising it.
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