This paper, presented at a conference of college admissions counselors, attempts to provide a brief overview of descriptive and inferential statistics for college admissions officers, in the hopes that it will encourage these admissions personnel to question assumptions more critically. The paper begins by defining statistics, specifically inferential statistics (the science of interpreting data to make predictions, estimates, or decisions). It goes on to explain why statistics are useful to college admissions officers. Variables are explained and the distinction between correlational and experimental research is discussed. The distinction between independent and dependent variables also is described. Measurement scales are discussed as they relate to different types of variables (nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio). Relations between variables are explored and the importance of those relations is considered. Samples and populations are discussed. Basic features of relations between variables are examined, statistical significance is explained, and how levels of significance are calculated is discussed. Finally, a number of basic statistical terms are defined, including frequency tables, crosstabs, chi-square, correlations, testing for differences in means between independent samples, t-tests, multiple regression, and nonparametric statistics. The paper concludes with a brief section on computer-based statistics programs. (NB)