Backdoor Admissions to Selective Universities
The NY Times today published a piece about an interesting college admissions strategy: To get into a selective school, apply to a less popular program and then once you’re accepted, transfer into your desired program. Transfering within a university is easier than entering it.
How to choose which major to apply to? Some programs are more selective than others.
At UC Berkeley, the combined SAT average score of this fall’s freshmen was 1953 for the College of Letters and Science; 1892 for the College of Environmental Design; and 1842 in the College of Natural Resources. At Cornell University this fall, 90 percent of freshmen admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences placed in the top 10 percent of their high school class; 75 percent ranked that high for Agriculture and Life Sciences. Gender matters, too. A woman had a 20 percent chance of getting into Arts and Sciences but a 49 percent chance of getting into the College of Engineering.
The catch is that you can’t fake passion and more universities are becoming wise to this practice. The University of Michigan recently added new essay requirements to weed out any applications that may be trying to game the system.
