Interesting tool for choosing where to apply

Last night at the Tuck event I was talking with an alum about a business he founded and still operates. He had mentioned still running the business even though he works in investment management but no longer does all the work for it. As he explained it, his company used data mining and statistical models and developed a computer program that predicts people’s chances to get into college programs. (he was a math major so…I didn’t really understand some of the technicals of it)

What I found most interesting was when he said that though admissions officers claim that it’s a holistic method, there really is a statistical way of quantifying your chances. He said that they have a 98% success rate or predicting someone’s chances (it’s actually guaranteed). They don’t say yes or no but give you a % chance of getting in, like 70% or 15% to help gauge just how good or bad your chances are…I am sure a lot of it is obvious like that someone with no work experience, a 600 and a 2.8 applying to HBS has a 0.01% chance.

Knowing my luck I would get 51% or 49% at every school I had them predict and it wouldn’t really be much help. I don’t think I would use the service but I thought the idea of it was great; I guess it’s the engineer in me and my hatred of the buzz words “holistic method” that appreciates this.