How hard has The Ohio State University really gotten to get in to?

[iambrutus]

Given that you are asking a question like this, I sincerely hope OSU admission is out of the cards if I am to have any respect for my alma mater

 

[sandgk]

Given that you are asking a question like this, I sincerely hope OSU admission is out of the cards if I am to have any respect for my alma mater

Do you want fries with that?

 

[Captain Hindsight]

Given that you are asking a question like this, I sincerely hope OSU admission is out of the cards if I am to have any respect for my alma mater

Knowing you went there definitely may alter my decision.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Check this website out. If you feel like it, you can put your application numbers up and you'll get some good feedback from people who've recently gone through Ohio State admissions.

Ohio State University - Columbus - College Discussion

Are you a senior this year? If so, you'd better get your application in soon. With rolling admissions, it will get very difficult if you wait until into December.

 

[ScarletBlood31]

Personally, I think that Class Rank is bullshit.

I go to a very competitive high school, and have a 4.12 average for 3 years which puts me at 126 out of 428, or top 29%. (However, my senior year GPA should bump that average up to around 4.26 since I am doing much better this year than any of the previous).


At my school, there are 2 guys tied for #1 with 4.95 each. I also go to a school with a "Specialty Center", which allows for students to take a few extra honors classes each year than the rest, giving them a significant advantage on the GPA race, which is now more about strategy rather than taking challenging classes that interest you.


The reason I know that my GPA isn't overly inflated and that I would be in the top 25%-20% in a lot of other schools are standardized tests. I got a 1280 for my SATS (1910 with 3 sections), and a 27 ACT. That puts me above the average for what I have seen for tOSU's admission standards, but then most of those kids are easily "top 25%" in their high schools.


Point is, Class Rank is not a fair evaluation for a lot of students. I might as well have just transferred to another school with lower standards in my county, and finished my senior year in the Top 10%.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

So a 1280 puts you around the 75th percentile and your class rank puts you around the 71st. I don't see a substantial disparity there.

EDIT - I found (what appear to be) more accurate percentiles. For those SAT/ACT scores, it looks like you would place somewhere between the 83rd-89th percentile. Looks like you may have a point about class rank. I'm sure admissions would take that disparity into account.

 

[BuckeyeRyn]

"disparity" the word of the day. Live it, learn it, love it!

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

"disparity" the word of the day. Live it, learn it, love it!

Sorry, I left my thesaurus on the school bus this morning.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

I'm sure that the admissions office puts some subjective weight on a student's application based on how competitive their h.s. is--i.e. 75th percentile at Columbus Academy is viewed somewhat differently than 75th percentile at Bugtussle High.


OTOH, the numbers you posted just confirm my entire grade inflation point and why gpa not put in the context of class rank is meaningless these days. 30% of the seniors at your high school are graduating with over a 4.0 gpa.

 

[Captain Hindsight]

I'm sure that the admissions office puts some subjective weight on a student's application based on how competitive their h.s. is--i.e. 75th percentile at Columbus Academy is viewed somewhat differently than 75th percentile at Bugtussle High.


OTOH, the numbers you posted just confirm my entire grade inflation point and why gpa not put in the context of class rank is meaningless these days. 30% of the seniors at your high school are graduating with over a 4.0 gpa.

I agree with you and by the way, thank you very much for all of your input and help. Technically, I think that colleges should mainly consider the secondary school report and the difficulty of the classes with GPA as an indication of what they can do.

It's probably because I'm biased, but having a 3.2 - 3.3 unweighted GPA with many honors classes under my belt, I would have a hard time dealing with another student gaining admission to a university or institution that I applied to with a 3.6 GPA, but no honors classes or a cake-walk of a school.

Hah, but life can suck sometimes.

 

[ScarletBlood31]

So a 1280 puts you around the 75th percentile and your class rank puts you around the 71st. I don't see a substantial disparity there.

EDIT - I found (what appear to be) more accurate percentiles. For those SAT/ACT scores, it looks like you would place somewhere between the 83rd-89th percentile. Looks like you may have a point about class rank. I'm sure admissions would take that disparity into account.

Right, and I'm sure that they will. The admissions officers definitely know what they are doing, and hopefully can find their way through a lot of the fluff. Although, as you did point out, being in the 75th percentile of tOSU's students is going to be tougher than that same percentile in the wide range of students of a normal high school, with many of the students maybe not being able to be accepted into tOSU in the first place.

But i'm just saying that as far as the "Class Rank" factor goes, it's not always accurate. I think that schools should instead just focus more on strength of class schedules, and how good of schools they go to.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

It's not an easy job to balance all of the competing qualifications of the applicants on one hand with the desired composition of the freshman class, particularly when you have 24K applicants for 6K spots in the freshman class.

Personally I think the admissions department and university leadership are doing a great job. Consider the quality of our incoming students (class rank and test score profiles, number of valedictorians and National Merit Finalists and so on) with the fact that we're also listed as being among the best schools in the country for underrepresented minorities (racial diversity) and the percentage of freshman who are first generation college students (economic diversity) far outpaces the national average (22.7% at Ohio State to 15.9% nationally).

In other words, Ohio State is managing a very selective student body without becoming an overgrown prep school for wealthy white suburbanites--not an easy task.

 

[ScarletBlood31]

It's not an easy job to balance all of the competing qualifications of the applicants on one hand with the desired composition of the freshman class, particularly when you have 24K applicants for 6K spots in the freshman class.

A little exaggerated.

CollegeBoard.com has Ohio State admitting 68% of last years applicants.


Based off of your numbers, that would be about 25%.

It has gotten a lot more competitive, but not that competitive.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

A little exaggerated.

CollegeBoard.com has Ohio State admitting 68% of last years applicants.


Based off of your numbers, that would be about 25%.

It has gotten a lot more competitive, but not that competitive.

You're forgetting that not everyone accepted ends up enrolling.

Also, College board is still using 2006 numbers; 68% was the acceptance rate for '06. For 2007, the rough numbers were 24K applied; 13K accpeted; slightly under 50% yield of those accepted choosing to enroll.

 

[NewYorkBuck]

Personally, I think that Class Rank is bullshit.

I go to a very competitive high school, and have a 4.12 average for 3 years which puts me at 126 out of 428, or top 29%. (However, my senior year GPA should bump that average up to around 4.26 since I am doing much better this year than any of the previous).


At my school, there are 2 guys tied for #1 with 4.95 each. I also go to a school with a "Specialty Center", which allows for students to take a few extra honors classes each year than the rest, giving them a significant advantage on the GPA race, which is now more about strategy rather than taking challenging classes that interest you.


The reason I know that my GPA isn't overly inflated and that I would be in the top 25%-20% in a lot of other schools are standardized tests. I got a 1280 for my SATS (1910 with 3 sections), and a 27 ACT. That puts me above the average for what I have seen for tOSU's admission standards, but then most of those kids are easily "top 25%" in their high schools.


Point is, Class Rank is not a fair evaluation for a lot of students. I might as well have just transferred to another school with lower standards in my county, and finished my senior year in the Top 10%.

I would agree w this. There is no telling how challenging classes are from school to school, how tough the competition is, or how much grade inflation there is. Thats why I value standardized tests (at least the older ones that actually had predicitive value) more than most people.