[quote="Class of 72" post=278843][quote="Beast of the East" post=278826][quote="Class of 72" post=278824]Beast wrote:
"I know what the published numbers are, but I can tell from direct experience is that 1290 will not get you into Villanova - not even close."
You're too funny Beast!! Was your direct experience having applied to Villanova? LOL! My nephew got in with a1320 and was rejected by Fordham. The published numbers come from the University. I worked in education for 30 years and have a pretty good idea of how the numbers are manipulated for rankings but, as loving Dad Mr. Owens said, numbers don't lie.
The range you yourself quoted is the "middle 50 % ". Very simply, Villanova submitted that 50% of the admitted students (not those actually accepted), had those SAT numbers. It means that 25% actually had higher than the top number which is exemplary but it also means that 25% had less than 1290. You may not like that fact but it is what it is as they say.
By the way, the undergraduate student population has no significance in determining the rankings. Duke has roughly the same undergraduate population as Villanova but it is a world class post graduate school with a very large post grad population. Thus, Villanova and Holy Cross, while differing in student size, are basically similar in their admittance demographics. Their middle 50% is basically identical. However, HC has a very high reputation among Jesuit universities and it's Government and Politics courses rival Georgetown and are superior than Notre Dame. Personally, I give the nod to HC over Villanova for the overall quality of education but those Nova kids "test" well and have very high GPA's. The bottom line is those are all very excellent Catholic schools but on the end, it doesn't make Villanova a basketball blue blood over the past 50 years, which is what a blue blood is, and it certainly doesn't make it a Georgetown or NYU academically given its almost completely homogeneous student population. Bottom line it is a great school to send your virginal daughters to.
BTW, attached is an interesting ranking. Please note the ranking of the College of the Holy Cross. Also note that SJU is not ranked as President Bobby is busy counting beans instead of improving academics.[/quote]
First of all, Bobby is improving academics at SJU. It's my understanding that some of the high end Deans that have recently come here would not have considered SJU without Bobby's influence.
Second of all, Villanova went to the NCAA Finals in 1971 - 47 years ago. While Georgetown had an impressive run through the Ewing-through-Mutombo years, the rest isn't nearly as impressive.
My direct experience is that all of my kids were accepted to Villanova, two to Holy Cross (one didn't apply), one to BC and one wait listed there. I do know that in those years, some friends and classmates got into Georgetown and BC with SAT scores between 1250 and 1300 because of legacy status. I can say with certainly that if 25% of accepted students were offered admission with 1250s, an overwhelming majority would have jumped on it. I don't have any evidence of that, but i think some schools report that to cash in on profiting off applications which is a pretty big business. I'm not just talking Villanova - I mean all schools. I can't explain it but I know there are plenty of kids with scores in the low to mid 1300s who aren't offered admission there.[/quote]
Personally I have no vested interest in any of the schools discussed. You appear to be a strong Villanova supporter. Good for you. I just wanted to retort because you inferred I was making up facts. When I gave you Villanova's self-repoerted SAT scores for their middle 50 percent you seem to be surprised. What shouldn't surprise you is that the lower 25% with scores below 1290 "may" come from the 13% that make up the low income family PELL eligible group who did not have the privilege of attending mostly white upper middle class schools in high performing school districts. It would be interesting to see how many of the hundreds of Villanova athletes scored above 1300.
I think I forgot to attach a ranking of Catholic schools and I'm sure there are many but many folks that evaluate schools think higher of Holy Cross than even Georgetown. I don't think you would see that with a Villanova - Georgetown comparison by anyone.
http://college.usatoday.com/2017/02/17/best-catholic-colleges/[/quote]
Funny thing about statistics is that you can make them say almost anything you want, especially when you drill down. I do know this stat that BC publishes. It's cross applications. The top ten schools that admitted BC students apply to are 8 Ivy's, Villanova, and Georgetown.
To your point about athletes, we recall the days that Digger Phelps complained at Notre Dame that his school wouldn't bend admission requirements for athletes in the same manner that other schools did. I don't know how much VIllanova bends admission standards, but I will say that there athletes all seem to speak well and appear reasonably bright. I would say the same about some of our older basketball alumni too.
I don't want to digress too much, but there is also a myth about underperforming schools having blame placed on the school or faculty. On Long Island, just check out who the valedictorians are in those districts in recent years, what their SAT scores are, and the schools they are attending. Those students are punching gigantic holes in the myth that students don't perform well because of the districts they are from. I once heard an interview of the woman who wrote "Tiger Mom", who explained that asians students excel in academics because families do not believe it is the job of teachers to make kids learn. They believe it is their job to demand academic excellence form their kids, make sure they can read, make sure they do their homework, and study hard.
