The middle 50% is a term that is probably not confusing to statisticians, researchers and admissions folk - but I have oft seen an eye glaze over when I mention the term to folks not as intimately familiar with mathematical magic.
Allow me to explain:
A question that comes up quite frequently during our weekday information sessions is "what is the minimum ACT score to be admitted to your prestigious university?" (Okay, people often times leave out the adjective ;)
This always leads me to explain that UIC really doesn't have minimums (more on this in a later post) - but our average score is usually between a 24 and 25. To give a better perspective, I have students look at a nifty chart in some of the materials we hand out.
I show them that the middle 50% of our students score between a 22-27. Then the students who scored a 21 start getting nervous, perhaps needlessly so...
The middle 50% is exactly that: If you took a look at all the students who were admitted, and then cut out the middle - this is what that range would represent.
In other words, 25% of our students scored better than 27 and were admitted to UIC. 25% of our students scored lower than a 22 AND WERE ADMITTED to UIC.
The range, is not meant to scare people into thinking that there is a minimum and maximum ACT score for the university, but gives you a glimpse of the incoming students.
This goes for the middle 50% GPA, class rank, and whatever other statistic we throw at you.
Hopefully that clears things up a little. If not, please leave a comment and I'll try again. Until next time!
