Acceptance rates are subject to skewing

0 Comments | USA TODAY, November, 2006 | by Tracey Wong Briggs

With acceptance rates under 13%, Harvard, Yale and Princeton are indeed extremely selective universities. But looking at just those schools gives a very skewed picture. "When we read stories about how hard a time people are having getting into those very selective institutions, it's not the tip of the iceberg -- it's the fly on the tip of the iceberg." says David Hawkins of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Using data that colleges reported to the U.S. Department of Education, Hawkins crunched application and acceptance numbers for 857 four-year, not-for-profit colleges in the country that accepted more than 1,000 students in 2004. In his chart, only 2.6% of the schools accepted fewer than 25% of their applicants, while 82.5% accepted more than half....