How do you know if you will be accepted to a top university? Here we give you some interesting figures of the percentages that top universities work on when accepting their applicants. This will give you a better idea of the strategy you have to take.
The application history is basically divided into 2 blocks, the history if you apply to the top 25 or if you apply to the top 50. The first block is much more competitive and we have seen a reduction in the acceptance rate of the best universities at the level. worldwide, making the process more exhaustive and demanding not only focusing on results or years of experience but the type of position, years of personnel management, letters of recommendation, etc. The second part of the list, from 25 to 50, is in a somewhat more complicated position because it sees the need to compete for the top candidates. This does not necessarily make the process more, but it does make universities go the extra mile for those students they consider valuable.
INCREASE OF APPLICATIONS TO THE TOP 10 REFLECTS GREATER COMPETITION FOR QUALITY
If your plan is to study in the USA then things get a little more complicated for the top. The number of applications grew by 4.4% with a total of 54,694 applications in the top 10 with an acceptance rate of 14.5%. The lowest overall rate in the last 5 years. (In 2012 this rate was around 17%). Some think that even if they are top, universities have facilitated the process (not the difficulty), reducing the time required to apply, so they have seen an increase, however this does not tell us the complete story about the impact in percentage of acceptance.
Only two top saw the number of apps drop. Columbia Business School saw the number of applications drop 5.1% with 5,534 applications and Chicago Booth fell 3.9% with 4,117 applications. However, both also had lower acceptance rates. Columbia accepted 23.6% of its applicants (compared to 24.4% the year before) and Booth only accepted 14.1% of the applicants (compared to 18% the previous year).
Trends continue to show that overall 2-year programs are experiencing a drop in applications, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suffered a 35% drop and Puerdue fell 29.5% from the prior year’s applications. UC Irvine’s Merage School of Business also fell 20.3%
HARDER THAN EVER TO ENTER THE TOP 10 IN THE USA
| Data | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
| Acceptance Rate | 14.5% | 15.6% | 16.4% | 16.2% | 17.0% |
| Applications | 54,694 | 52,384 | 51,735 | 52.35 | 49,605 |
| Admits | 7,934 | 8,177 | 8.47 | 8,373 | 8,452 |
| Rolled up | 5.1 | 5,279 | 5,589 | 5.518 | 5,462 |
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