UCONN crushing academics/2012 freshmen student profile

[Rumrunner]

While trends take a while to manifest themselves in admission statistics, most schools can point to a decline or increase in student body quality over a period of a number of years. In general, it isn't hard to determine if the student body is getting stronger or weaker over even a relatively small period of time.

The quick summary is that the average 2012 UCONN freshman ranked higher in his class, had a higher SAT score, had a harder time getting admitted, and during his career at UCONN will have smaller class sizes, and is more likely to graduate on time than his predecessors, including freshmen admitted in 2011. What is remarkable is the pace of how fast the student body is improving. The strong get stronger.

And to boot, UCONN is doing something really remarkable. UCONN's bottom 25% of students have an SAT average of 1130, which is almost 100 points higher than the SAT bottom quartile at Rutgers. That number stayed the same, and truthfully, it is a difficult number to improve upon because of UCONN's mission of serving underrepresented minorities who historically score lower on standardized testing. So a number which is already high, stayed higher. But then look at the top 25% of students- they saw a 20 point increase in their SAT scores on the combined math and critical reading. That roughly correlates to a 1-2 percentage point improvement in SAT percentile ranking. To put hard numbers to it, 25% of UCONN freshmen scored in the top decile of SAT test takers.

As most know, admissions officers like to see the 10/10 applicants-top 10% of class and top 10% of SAT scores. Those students are the best and brightest, and UCONN is getting more and more of them.

For those that follow US News, many of the metrics that UCONN improved upon are used by them in calculation of rankings, including class size, student/faculty ratio, admission stats, etc. So look for an improvement when new rankings come out in fall of 2013.

By the way, Big Ten schools which have lower SAT/ACT scores, admit students with lower class rank and have a higher admission rate than UCONN:

Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Nebraska, Purdue, Rutgers, Michigan State, Penn State

On academics, Jim Delany, can you hear us now?

RED=2011, BLUE=2012
Number of Applicants 27,247 29,966
Admitted Applicants 12,894 13,397
Admission Percentage
47.3% 44.7%
Percentage of Students in Top 10% of class
43% 48%
Percentage of Students in Top 25% of Class
82% 86%
Percentage of Students in Top 50% of Class
98% 98%

SAT 25/75%
Critical Reading 550/640 550/650
Math 580/670 580/680
ACT Composite 27 28
Percentage of freshmen scoring above 600 on SAT Math 68% 70%


Faculty Ratio
18:1 (24,641/1,349) 17:1 (24,469 students/1,411 faculty)
Class Size Under 20 students 42% 46%
Class Size Over 50 students 18%
Retention Rate: 92% 93%

 

[zls44]

Every institutional check mark they're meeting. Student body is getting smarter and larger at the same time, facilities are improving, satellite campuses are improving, fundraising is way up.

The only variable they cannot control is time. You can't make up for other state schools having a century head-start other than by continuing to do what they're doing.

 

[kfalko]

Truly remarkable what the school has done in such a relative short period of time. I graduated in 2006 and was admitted in 2002 and already at that time the uptick was starting in their academic requirements as only myself and one other person were admitted to the Storrs campus from my high school (small school, I think there was only 100 of us?).

Its stuff like this that not only current students reap the benefits of either, even now while I'm pursing a graduate degree (ASU) and I mention where I went for undergrad on more than a handful of occasions I've heard things such as "wow, great school", "you must have gotten a great education", etc. On interviews I've been asked about how strenuous UConn was academically and employers just seem generally impressed from the schools reputation alone. Hopefully we can turn this rising academic reputation into a B1G invite but only time will tell. In any case its great to see this type of stuff.

 

[upstater]

Every institutional check mark they're meeting. Student body is getting smarter and larger at the same time, facilities are improving, satellite campuses are improving, fundraising is way up.

The only variable they cannot control is time. You can't make up for other state schools having a century head-start other than by continuing to do what they're doing.

Those scores are also benefited by Connecticut public schooling--which produces better students than the vast majority of states. And if the state pols ever decided to subsidize UConn at the level the Big1G pols do, UConn would skyrocket even more, because then they could afford to take the best students from Conn. rather than going begging for lesser students from other states whoa re willing to pay double the freight.