Acceptance rate low as Baylor receives record applications
Sept. 8, 2006
By CHRISTINE TAMER
Staff writer
Baylor's acceptance rate is at a record-breaking low in 2006.
Only 42.4 percent of applicants were accepted, a significant decrease from last year's 65.6 percent acceptance rate, said James Steen, assistant vice president of admissions and enrollment services.
Steen said the low acceptance rate is "very statistically significant" and is the lowest in Baylor's history.
According to Collegeboard.com, schools similar to Baylor, such as Tulane University, Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University ,all had higher acceptance rates.
"If you look back, historically Baylor has had an acceptance rate of around 80 percent," Steen said. "We have seen that come down in the past two or three years."
In 1999, for instance, Baylor accepted 86.6 percent of freshman and transfer applicants. The enrollment for first-time freshmen this year fell to 2,783, a decrease of 385 from last year's 3,168, Steen said.
"We definitely overenrolled last year," Steen said.
The decrease in enrollment has significantly improved freshman on-campus housing, said Ronald English Campus Living and Learning assistant director for administrative services.
"When you have less freshmen coming in, you have less people filling up space," English said.
While last year some freshmen were living with community leaders, this year there are room vacancies on campus, English said.
Total enrollment increased from 13,975 to 14,040 this year. This year, 42.7 percent of the population is male, up 1.7 percentage points from last year. Steen said Baylor had a record number of applicants last year, an increase of 38.5 percent.
"We received almost 6,000 more applicants than last year, which is a good problem to have," Steen said.
Of the freshmen applications Baylor received last year, only 9,100 were accepted.
Steen said nearly 1,000 fewer were accepted to avoid overenrollment.
"We were tasked this year to enroll a class of higher quality and to really make sure that we did not overenroll," Steen said.
The average SAT score of this year's accepted students is 1213. Last year's SAT average was 1196, Steen said.
"To improve the mean SAT by 17 points is a significant jump in one year," Steen said.
The SAT average of this year's applicants is 1150, a drop from last year's 1156.
"We were off by six points, but because we were more selective we were able to bring in a much more qualified class," Steen said.
Retention rates will be available in the next few days, said Diana Ramey, assistant vice president for enrollment management.
To reach the goal Baylor 2012 has set forth, Baylor needs to improve the retention rate to 93 percent, Ramey said.
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