News & Notes: Princeton named most selective college in Eastern U.S.

Harvard University came in second, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale and Columbia.

In the analysis, On Numbers considered the percentage of applicants admitted and the 75th and 25th percentile scores on college entrance exams such as the ACT and SAT. The formula compared each Eastern college against the national averages in these categories, using 2010 data from the National Center for Education Statistics for 344 colleges in the 12 Eastern states as well as the District of Columbia. On Numbers awarded positive scores to above-average performances and negative scores to below-average ones. They limited the study to colleges that processed at least 1,000 applications in 2010 and excluded schools that did not report admissions rates or college-entrance scores for 2010.

Princeton’s 2010 admissions rate of 8.8 percent makes the University one of seven Eastern colleges with an admissions rate of less than 10 percent, and its 75th percentile score of 1580 on the SAT is the highest in the region.