Students: Understand the difference between Oranges and Apples when picking a school

Let’s compare the Math SAT scores from Washington University in St. Louis School of Engineering, MIT and Carnegie-Mellon’s Engineering and Computer Science.

MIT’s admitted middle 50% is 740 to 800.  The average for those admitted who enroll is 765.

Carnegie-Mellon’s middle 50% for those who enroll is 740 to 800 for Engineering and 780 to 800 for Computer Science, for an approximate average of both of about 775 (Computed by taking the medians and weighting them by the respective numbers of Freshmen in each school.)

Just this Spring the Washington University School of Engineering published and highlighted that their average for admitted undergraduates is 762.  I called the engineering magazine to make sure this was for admitted students and was told that is correct.  I asked the numbers for enrolled students and they said they do have that number but don’t make it public.

(I believe MIT gets a yield of enrolled to admitted of about 65%.  Carnegie-Mellon gets about 25%.  Since Washington University isn’t as well known as an engineering school, it wouldn’t surprise me if their Engineering School yield is even lower.  Their whole yield seems to be about 35%)

The lesson.  I don’t believe most people pay a lot of attention to admitted vs. enrolled.  It is much easier to increase the admitted statistics to advertise that you are in high demand by good students than it is to increase the enrolled statistics.  That