Colleges like Dartmouth but less selective.

<p>Except that the crux of the discussion here was combining applications to schools with varying degrees of a higher probability of acceptance than at Dartmouth.</p>

<p>Williams and Amherst are a little less selective than Dartmouth. They have higher acceptance rates, lower yield rates, and lower average SAT scores (despite have lower number of NCAA athletes) compared to Dartmouth.</p>

<p>I've always thought that Williams and Amherst are right about the same as Dartmouth to actually a little harder to get into for your typical unhooked, top 1% of hs class, 1480 SAT candidate and have known more to get into Dartmouth and not Williams or Amherst than the other way around. Dartmouth's SAT average may have been higher last year, but if you look historically over the last 20 years they have been similar to Williams and Amherst being higher more of the time. The acceptance rates for Williams and Amherst historically have been slightly higher; however, these schools are much more self-selecting in their applicant pool. Moreover, while their athletes are not competing at a D-I level, the athletes they are bringing in at Williams and Amherst are still bringing down the stats of the class profiles and because of the smaller class sizes represent a much higher percentage of the student body than they do at Dartmouth. Don't get me wrong, I liked Dartmouth more, but in my experience would say it's inaccurate to say Williams and Amherst are less selective.</p>

<p>Sounds fine to me. Don't get so discouraged. You sound like you're on track for pretty much any college. Just make sure to aim high. I'm sure you're more than capable of getting into Dartmouth so long as you put the effort in.</p>

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I'm sure you're more than capable of getting into Dartmouth so long as you put the effort in.

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<p>The problem is so are the majority of the applicants; way higher than the 15% they actually accept.</p>