Can anyone explain these statistics?

[maverick145]

Im probably over analyzing the admission statistics, but this doesn't make sense to me. As an example, Boston University according to the guide to dental schools does not give a preference to in state students. Yet they offered admission to 27% of their in state students, and only 4.7% of their out of state applicants. And this is the same for allot of the other schools that supposedly do not give preference. Can anyone explain this?

(possibly all of the out of state students that actually enroll at boston are mainly students who could not get into their state schools and so their overall stats are not as high as you would think for being the top 4.7% of the out of state applicant pool, making their stats similar to the top 27% of the in state applicant pool? This is the only thing i can think of)

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[LongTooth]

I've heard that BU gives a strong preference to people with a BU affiliation, and many of those people might have MA residency (either b/c they lived in MA originally or changed their residency), so that could explain part of it.

 

[UKdreams]

You have to look at the amount of applicants for instate/out of state. For example, x school gives admission to 45 state students. If 200 in state apply, then that's 25% roughly. If out of state seats are 150 and 3000 out of state people apply, that's only 5% out of state applicants..

 

[LongTooth]

I think the OP means they offer admission to a higher *percentage* of in-state applicants compared to out-of-state. In that case, the absolute number who applied shouldn't make a difference.

 

[d3nt15t]

I noticed this too. I think the reason why schools state that they do not give preference in the ADEA book is simply so that they can have a larger applicant pool. The applicants:interviews and interviews:acceptance ratios for OOS. vs IS pretty much speak for themselves.

 

[doc toothache]

Boston had 171 IS and 4498 OOS applicants and while 2.0% of oss applicants were accepted they represent 78% of the enrollees.

 

[d3nt15t]

Boston seems to give a preference to in-staters, even though it's reported otherwise in the ADEA book. In 2009, of 171 IS applicants, 35% were interviewed. Of 4498 OOS applicants, 8% were interviewed. In-staters were also significantly more likely to be extended an acceptance after an interview: 78% of ISers were accepted post-interview vs 57% for OOS. (See the latest ADEA book pg. 32)

Unless I'm missing something here, the stats definitely suggest that BU does have a bias for in-staters. I wonder why their ADEA page states otherwise.

 

[doc toothache]

Unless I'm missing something here, the stats definitely suggest that BU does have a bias for in-staters. I wonder why their ADEA page states otherwise.

A private ds accepting 78% in staters could be considered biased.

 

[d3nt15t]

A private ds accepting 78% in staters could be considered biased.

I agree, but it seems that a school that gives out 18% of its acceptances to in-staters who represent a mere 3.6% of the applicant pool suggests that the school has a strong preference for in-staters.

 

[Lethstang]

Don't look at what thindividual school says they prefer. Go by the spreadsheet with statistics for the real story.

 

[doc toothache]

I agree, but it seems that a school that gives out 18% of its acceptances to in-staters who represent a mere 3.6% of the applicant pool suggests that the school has a strong preference for in-staters.

If the numbers of in and out of staters were not so lopsided.