re: Kentucky has an acceptance rate of 94%

A lot of schools intentionally recruit kids they have no intention of accepting just so they can turn them down. It lowers their acceptance rate and makes them look more exclusive. Several Ivies got into a bit of scandal for doing this years ago.

94 percent is ridiculously high but a lot of state universities have an auto acceptance for in-state students *if* they score x and/or have a GPA of x. I would definitely say it looks like it's easier to get into UK than other places but at the same time acceptance rates are a poor measure to use when looking at an institution. Really, most of the measures sold to the general public by the various guides are trash when it come to determining actual academic value but it sells magazines and guides and gives admissions offices something to crow about.

Prospective students and their parents need to be looking at individual programs not university rankings. They also need to be looking at individual professors and dept. connections to outside programs and institutions the student may want to pursue while attending and after attending but those things are harder to quantify.