Wal-Mart has a lower acceptance rate than Harvard

[n2doc]

This year's Ivy League admissions totals are in. The 5.9 percent acceptance rate is impressively exclusive, but compared to landing a job at Wal-Mart, getting into the Ivy Leagues is a cakewalk.

Last year when Wal-Mart came to D.C. there were over 23,000 applications for 600 jobs. That's an acceptance rate of 2.6%, twice as selective as Harvard's and over five times as choosy as Cornell.



This isn't an anomaly - last year a Wegman's in Pennsylvania boasted an acceptance rate of 5%, while Google only has room for one half of one percent of its job applicants.

Parents and students - particularly those from a certain socio-economic background - tend to obsess a lot over the college admissions process. The danger, of course, is that this single-minded focus on preparing kids for college - the extra-curriculars, test prep, admissions coaching, and the like - is coming at the expense of prepping them for the job market hurdles that come after.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/28/wal-mart-has-a-lower-acceptance-rate-than-harvard/

[yeoman6987]

1. Wow

Twenty three hundred showed up to work at Walmart? It must be desperate times for DC. What can the Mayor do to help that poor city? DC should be the best city around with everything Democratic (Mayor, City Council, etc). I wish they could be a progressive haven and then spread out to the rest of the country.

[Jacoby365]

3. Looks like 23,000, not 2300. Is that correct? Unbelievable.

[reformist2]

2. What happens to the 97% who get turned away??? We need to come to terms with the jobs crisis.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Well, I actually tried once or twice...

Their website has a 'questionaire' that takes 30-45 minutes to wade through.

Never heard back from them. Apparently, I'm not good enough for them.

[EvilAL]

5. I heard that

Their aptitude test or whatever it is when you apply is just to weed out the smart people. The better you do, the less chance you have of getting on becuase they don't want people that know their rights and other shit like that.. Just obedient workers. Might not be true, but my friend told me that that was a manager at a walmart..

[woo me with science]

6. A national emergency not just being ignored by our supposed representatives

but being actively encouraged and abetted.

Barack Obama - Company Man, pt. 2: Obama’s Pacific Deal Would Deepen Income Divide
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10024675281

Study: Obama's "Trade" Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers
(for those who still have jobs)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023661805

[GiveMeMorePIE]

7. Probably.

Both times I worked there was because of a family friend in management pulling strings.

[Initech]

8. 23,000 applicants for 600 jobs? Our economy is seriously broken.