Arizona Students Applying to Ivy League Schools Accepted at Lower Rate
PHOENIX
Arizona students applying to eight Ivy League schools and Stanford University were accepted at a lower rate than students nationally, according to a survey by The Arizona Republic.
One of eight Arizona applicants, or 13 percent, was offered admission to the prestigious universities, compared with one of six, or 17 percent, nationally, the newspaper reported.
For next fall’s freshman class, Harvard University admitted seven of the 135 Arizonans who applied. Usually, it takes 12 or 13. Cornell University offered admission to 13 of 98 Arizona applicants, less than half of last year’s 29. Stanford had 304 Arizona applications, 40 more than last year, but offered admission to 25, nine fewer than last year.
“For these high achievers, it’s the first time they get the lesson that life isn’t always fair,” says Richard Spiegel, a child psychiatrist who also heads the Phoenix-area admissions committee for the University of Pennsylvania, one of the eight Ivy League schools.
The other Ivy League schools are Cornell, Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities, and Dartmouth College.
Admissions officials believe the acceptance rate for Arizona students is lower because colleges are looking for a student body that reflects the makeup of the nation.
Recruiters make special efforts to find bright minority students. The application pool from Arizona is not as diverse as in other states. Although many White and Asian kids apply to Ivy League schools, far fewer Latinos, American Indians and Blacks do. So, qualified minority students stand out.
In the past, it was more unusual for students to apply from Arizona. Those who did were noticed.
A bias against the West also may be at work.
“Fifteen years ago, the deans at the Ivies seemed to believe that the best students were found in the Eastern part of the country, and there could still be some traces of that to be found,” says Pennsylvania’s Admissions Dean Lee Stetson.
Most of the Ivy League schools reported a record number of applications this year.
Internet-based applications may be part of the reason prestige colleges have been inundated with applications, almost double from a decade ago, along with more brand-name consumerism and status consciousness among students and parents.
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