Jack Beecher College Case Study

Hey, Jack Beecher here. Today, I want to share an update of my college journey with you to help it serve as a case study for college admissions as a whole. As I mentioned yesterday in the blog we sent out, I’ve been rejected from a fair share of schools. One of those schools being Georgia Tech. But as of the day I’m writing this, I just got accepted into Vanderbilt!

If getting rejected from Georgia Tech and accepted into Vanderbilt sounds sort of random to you, let me break it down to illustrate the current state of college admissions.

Georgia Tech:

13% acceptance rate for out-of-state students (me)

7122 students waitlisted

Ranked 44th (according to US News Rankings)

Vanderbilt:

7.1% acceptance rate (closer to 4% for regular decision)

Ranked 13th (US News Rankings)

(Quick Disclaimer: Rankings don’t matter. I just used them to paint a better picture.)

Even Jack Delehey mentioned to me that he had three students last year accepted into Georgia Tech and rejected from Vanderbilt, but none, like me, in the opposite case.

But what does all this mean? I hope you guys don’t think I’m just complaining about not getting into Georgia Tech. I understand that they probably had a good reason to reject me. I just want to use this example to illustrate what your family will deal with in the coming years, or right now if your child’s a senior.

The truth is, college admissions is more random and competitive now than ever. With many elite students applying to many different colleges, acceptance rates at a lot of schools are dropping. And since schools want to protect their yield, the % of students who were admitted and enrolled, they are very selective in who they admit, only the students who they believe are going to attend.

So maybe that’s what my case study represents, or maybe not, since it’s partly random. The important takeaway is to accept that randomness and be grateful for the schools you or your child will inevitably get into, especially if they're in the program.