All the fuss, updated

One of the very first posts I did on this blog was showing just how many "Uber Selective" colleges and universities there are (or aren't), and how many students they enrolled (or didn't.)

I used it last week at a presentation at NACAC, and several people asked me if I had an update on it, so as soon as I got home, I pulled down the data and started visualizing it. It's below, and it should be self-explanatory: Of the 1,943 four-year institutions shown, only 18 admit less than 13% of freshman applicants. These institutions (blue bars) enroll just 82,000 students (under 15,000 of whom are African-American, Hispanic, or Native American), and only about 18,000 freshmen. Yet they get a relatively large share of the press and attention whenever the discussion turns to college admission.

This has limited interactivity: You can choose region, public or private, or Carnegie group.

And of most importance: This is but a sliver of American higher education; for instance, 9% of all college students enrolled in the US attend a community college in California; and another 4% at community colleges in Texas. Keep that in mind as you look at this data.

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Changes in AP Scores, 2022 to 2024

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