<p>I posted this in a thread in the parents forum. I think it's worth mentioning because people here are so concerned with rankings and selectivity that this will show people that just because a school has a higher admissions rate it doesn't mean that comparatively it is less selective. If we want to analyze selectivity we need to take into account that all the class sizes at the ivies are different ranging from an average 1000 person class to a 3000 person class. I decided to analyze how the numbers would look if we made all the class sizes across the ivies the same. I kept the number of applicants, and yield constant.</p>
<p>CURRENT:</p>
<p>SCHOOL APPS ACPT RATE CLASS SIZE YIELD
Cornell 24,444 6384 26.12% 3000 46.99%
Harvard 22,796 2074 9.10% 1650 79.56%
Yale 19,448 1880 9.67% 1325 70.48%
Penn 18,823 3912 20.78% 2450 62.63%
Columbia 18,120 2250 12.42% 1000 44.44%
Brown 16,908 2463 14.57% 1375 55.83%
Princeton 16,516 1807 10.94% 1150 63.64%
Dartmouth 12,615 2149 17.04% 1012 47.09%</p>
<p>WITH SAME SIZE CLASS:</p>
<p>SCHOOL APPS ACPT RATE CLASS SIZE YIELD
Cornell 24,444 2128 8.71% 1000 46.99%
Harvard 22,796 1257 5.51% 1000 79.56%
Yale 19,448 1419 7.30% 1000 70.48%
Penn 18,823 1597 8.48% 1000 62.63%
Columbia 18,120 2250 12.42% 1000 44.44%
Brown 16,908 1791 10.59% 1000 55.83%
Princeton 16,516 1571 9.51% 1000 63.64%
Dartmouth 12,615 2124 16.83% 1000 47.09%</p>
<p>So holding the number of applications and the current yield constant, if the class sizes across the ivy were the same then in order of selectivity the list would look like this:</p>
<p>Harvard 5.51%
Yale 7.30%
Penn 8.48%
Cornell 8.71%
Princeton 9.51%
Brown 10.59%
Columbia 12.42%
Dartmouth 16.83%</p>
<p>the only assumption, i guess, would be that if the class sizes were the same the number of applicants at each school would change (i.e. less people would apply to cornell - people apply now because they have a higher admissions rate, if cornell's class was 1000 i dont think that 24000 would apply). So this would greatly affect admission rates.</p>