Don't let the acceptance rate scare you. I would fare to gather that more than half the applicants actually didn't even get past the stage where their applications get looked at....PTCAS made it extremely easy to apply to a lot of schools this year so you get alot of people who simply blanket all the schools they want to attend and dont really put any thought into it. So....8% is a little skewed, But if you really want it.. you'll get it.
YES. It's a little-known fact that the majority of acceptance rates are deflated/skewed low. Schools (undergrad, grad programs, you name it) do it purposely, to make it seem as if their institution and/or programs are even more in-demand and competitive than they actually are.
Say a basic 4-year public university has 4000 slots for the incoming freshman class. 10,000 people apply. So the school uses those raw stats when computing their acceptance rate. And
technically, the stats are true. They did have 10,000 applicants for 4000 places. So the acceptance rate works out to be 40%.
Sounds scary! 40%? Not good odds at all.
BUT, those figures don't take into account the applicants who a) are not qualified (i.e. those who don't meet admissions requirements), and b) who apply to more than one school and end up
not choosing to attend our hypothetical school. say the average student applies to 5 schools; an individual can only attend one. Every school accounts for this: colleges by offering more people admission than they have places available; selective programs (such as PT) generally do it with the waiting list.
Now, take the 10,000 applicants for our hypothetical 4-year college freshman class. Assume that 25% are not academically qualified. You're down to 7500 applicants for 4000 places. Now assume that 25% of those offered admission choose to attend another school instead. Down to 5625 applicants for 4000 places. Actual acceptance rate? 71%. Rather different stats from the original, when you see the whole picture!
Some PT programs do lay out on their websites the number of applicants and the number of places in last year's class. But how many of those applicants were qualified? And how many were offered admission but declined? (And raw stats will never tell you how many people got denied for basic common-sense faux pas like wearing flip-flops to their DPT interview.
😛 )
The point of all this?
Stop worrying. Take the mental/emotional energy that you're wasting on worrying about (often deceptive) acceptance rates, and re-direct it; put that energy into doing everything you can to be successful.
