<p>Another thought-- some school may be easier to get into depending on where you are applying from- an east coaster applying west coast would have a better chance than an in-towner in many cases</p>
<p>qialah has a good point. I live in the Northeast and so Muhlenberg and Dickinson are readily known by many but I imagine this is not the case in the West. Similarly, Webster or Macalester or Lawrence are likely readily known in the Midwest as not as much in the East. Lewis and Clark and Willamette and Whitman are likely well known in the West but not so much here in the East. </p>
<p>Then, Wilners has a point when it comes to oneās odds in terms of applying and where you are from and where the college is located.</p>
<p>Colorado College</p>
<p>Creighton University</p>
<p>Kansas, Iowa, Miami of Ohio</p>
<p>New Mexico Tech</p>
<p>Iād honestly put almost any state flagship.</p>
<p>When I lived in Texas, Scripps was well known to the kind of kids who were also applying to ivies. On the east coast, Iāve never heard anyone mention it.</p>
<p>I think that the acceptance rate is a misguiding stat. For example, look at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute). WPI has an acceptance rate of 67%, which isnāt that selective at all. However if you look at the average gpa, its almost a 4.0. This means that most of there applicants are kids who got good grades in school and are really ideal for WPI, so they accept most of those kids.</p>
<p>And also note that most public schools are easy to get in if you are from that state becasue in order for them to get state funding, they most accept a good percentage of in state students. If you are a out of stater, it would be harder for you to get in. </p>
<p>And on the last note, I would consider any school with an acceptance rate of 50% and/or lower to be selective, regardless of its academic prestige. I see a lot of schools on here that are really hard to get into because they look at the āwhole packageā instead of your gpa and SAT scores.</p>
<p>University of Michiganāconsidered to be in the most selective category of colleges. Its honors program is even more selective, in which to be accepted, than Michiganās general acceptance admits population.</p>
<p>Bard has become a āhotā college (reference an article called "the hottest colleges of the decade), very suddenly, and is harder to gain admission toāthey do admissions somewhat holistically, so high data is a guarantee of nothing.</p>
<p>Earlham College and St. Johnās College (not to be confused with St. Johnās University) are well-respected by graduate school adcoms. The College of Wooster is well-respected overseas. All three admit between 60-80%.</p>
<p>Boston Manā¦yes, schools that accept less than 50% of their applicants are selective. Sally asked for colleges that are well regarded that may be sure bets for an elite college level applicant (or else in the realistic range for a solid, but not top, student). Students who are viable candidates for Ivies or elite colleges, can have safeties that accept less than 50%. My own kid was an applicant to elite colleges and her safeties were Lehigh and Conn College, where she was accepted to both. I have a student I am advising this year who is an applicant to elite colleges and her safety is Northeastern to which she has been accepted. For top students, their safeties might be reaches (as well as āselectiveā colleges) for other applicants, but are sure bets for them. </p>
<p>In my view, it is more like the schools that accept fewer than 25% that are not sure bets for anyone.</p>
<p>U. of Richmond
Union (NY)
Gettysburg
U. of Puget Sound</p>
<p>And, the first three have generous merit aid for top students. Donāt know about UPS.</p>
<p>In-State: Most state flagships, UC System (minus Riverside and Merced)
Tech schools (RPI/WPI/Virginia Tech/Cal Poly SLO/Rose-Hulman/etc.)
Many Masterās Colleges (Fairfield, the Loyolaās, Providence, Rollins, Elon, Creighton, etc.)</p>
<p>Boston U-everyone knows
Chicago-Top 10 in the world but has much higher acceptance rate than the other to p ones.</p>
<p>Miami of Ohio
U of Miami
Centre
Trinity (Tx)</p>
<p>For general information, UW-Madisonās published admission probabilities for test scores and class rank:</p>
<p><a href=āhttp://www.admissions.wisc.edu/images/UW_FreshmanExpectations.pdf[/url]ā>http://www.admissions.wisc.edu/images/UW_FreshmanExpectations.pdf</a></p>
<p>I would consider āIvy Leagueā candidates to be in the 95% square. UW has typically admitted at just over a 50% rate.</p>
<p>Some additional suggestions:
St. Olaf
Hendrix
Occidental
Lawrence</p>
<p>I strongly disagree with this post soozievt. While all of those schools are well respected, many of them are also highly selective. Michigan, for example, has just over a 40% acceptance rate which is also much lower for out-of-state students, and is among the most prestigious and difficult state schools to get into. Lehighās acceptance rate is about 27%. George Washington is becoming increasingly selective, Bucknellās acceptance is 29%, Villanova, Richmond, and even Franklin & Marshall are also very difficult.</p>
<p>Pitt
Penn State
Lafayette
Maryland
Ithaca
Delaware
Lehigh
Gettysburg
Univ of Scranton (Iām not sure if itās known nationally, but a couple really good students from my school ended up going there)</p>
<p>These are just the schools that came to mind that a lot of the described kids from my school go to.</p>
<p>
To be exact, its admit rate last year was 50%.</p>