<p>This year many top schools witnessed acceptance rates far below the twenty percent benchmark (Andover had 16.6% for reference). While the "Big Three" colleges may prove to be an exception, the Ivies seem to have an acceptance rate revolving somewhere around 15%.
Somethings to note: [ul]
[<em>]Boarding schools have a far more self selected application class
[</em>]Fewer people apply in the whole scheme of things
[<em>]Every idiot applies to Harvard, not everyone applies to boarding school
[</em>]While (HADES GCM) may be famous, they are not Harvard famous
[/ul]
Taking this and more things into consideration why do these schools have acceptance rates that parallel Ivy and top schools?</p>
<p>PV they absolutely do not! If you break it down into subsets, the admission rate may be as high as 40% for some groups. For example, full pay, ninth grade domestics from the midwest or south or far west have it a lot easier than the sub 20% that you cite.</p>
<p>If you break Ivy admissions into subsets you would see the same thing. At least I would think so…</p>
<p>Actually, Ivy admission rates are down to 7-8% at HYP and maybe 10% at Columbia. And there are no demographic subsets of applicants to Ivies that achieve a 40% acceptance rate. On the other hand, full pay, domestic ninth grade boarders from underrepresented states may reach a 40-50% acceptance rate at the most selective boarding schools.</p>
<p>yes pan. Harvard is between 7 and 8%. Columbia is 9%.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is around 16%.</p>
<p>I’m not talking about the Harvard, Yale, and Princeton of schools. Even schools such as Cornell (which are amazing) have slightly higher acceptance rates. You will see the strive for overall diversity which includes affirmative action and full pay “help”.</p>
<p>Some of the elite private day schools in major cities rival even the best boarding schools in selectivity. In New York, there’s Collegiate (10 percent), Dalton (13), Trinity (14), and the Children’s Storefront School, a tuition-free PS-8 school for Harlem kids that accepted only 2 percent of applicants. In Washington, DC, there’s Maret (10 percent), Georgetown Day (18) and Sidwell Friends (19), and in Boston there’s Roxbury Latin (17 percent), Buckingham Browne & Nichols (17), Park (16) and Windsor (20). </p>
<p>I think the really exclusive summer programs and internships probably boast the most competitive admissions. Cornell’s Nanobiotechnology internship for high school students admits less than 1% of applicants, and the Research Science Institute is in the single digits as well. Both of these programs are free, though.</p>
<p>Benevolent Dartmouth’s acceptance rate is 12.0%. Columbia is 9.82%. </p>
<p>Ivy acceptance rates are as follows this year:
Harvard: 7%
Yale: 9%
Princeton: 10%
Columbia: 10%
Brown: 11%
Dartmouth 12%</p>
<p>Penn: 17%
Cornell: 19%</p>
<p>Jeesh, I always though Penn was one of the better ones.</p>
<p>Cornell has really dropped! It was like 24 last year.</p>
<p>Penn is. They are all top in the nation… Penn Wharton is like godly for business, even better than Harvard’s program.</p>
<p>PV, back to the bread and butter of the thread that you launched. Are we in agreement that if the admission rates to the top secondary schools are microscopic, then it follows that the admission rates to the top universities are electron-microscope level sub-microscopic?</p>
<p>I would say that other than the perennial top of universities, boarding schools have lower acceptance rates. I would like to see the breakdown for some Ivies, however.</p>
<p>As I recently posted, Deerfield’s overall acceptance rate was 16%. Freshmen had about a 13.4% chance, while boarders also had less of a shot than day students. Girls also had a lower rate than guys, probably just random year-to-year fluctuation. International kids’ average was 8.9%…so imagine being a female, international boarder. I am estimating, but wouldn’t that be <5%? Sheesh!</p>