<p>I love these “whose is bigger” arguments. At the end of the day, however, I’m grateful that both my children avoided the myopic world of the undergraduate “business school” curriculum. How can a 17 year-old elect to pidgeonhole so narrowly? --Your obedient 30-year business world veteran and former philosophy major</p>
<p>P.S. OP, choose the college where you think you will be happiest. Believe me, once you start college, the respective acceptance rates of the schools will not matter in the least.</p>
<p>way to go platorepublic, your 6-7% acceptance rate is actually a 10-11% acceptance rate assuming 80% yeild (which is higher than Harvard’s and again I doubt that it’s as high as 80%). Don’t talk about fuzzy math and incorrect facts, when you make some pretty confident and bold statements that weren’t just fuzzy but proven incorrect from the wharton FAQ page. I’d suggest you go back to your forum, instead of telling us know how our intellectual capabilities are inferior.</p>
<p>To get back to the topic: OP you should definitely apply early to one of the schools, because the differences in acceptance rates between ED and RD are pretty large at both schools. You’re probably not going to be able to separate the engineering curricula and quality of department on college confidential. Do a little more research - ready some Columbia vs. X and Penn vs. Y threads to get a better sense of what the overall undergrad experience is like at these places.</p>
<p>^No worries, admissionsgeek! I really do enjoy the exchange of data. At the end of the day, over several years of watching data exchanges, I continue to be frustrated by the unwillingness of top universities to provide “apples-to-apples” data for comparison. In my humble opinion, Penn is most guilty of hiding the ball (although, in fairness, Columbia chooses to hide certain less relevant data points, such as waiting list information). Why not segregate admissions data for the various colleges at Penn, the way Columbia does? I suspect the reason is that Wharton raises the tide, and all Penn boats rise accordingly. (Why Wharton is so popular is, and will always remain, a mystery to me.)</p>
<p>This is all off topic, so this is my last post. </p>
<p>I was correct because that 80% yield is for Wharton only - and that is what it is. The Yield of wharton and the dual degree programs is much higher. Also, you are making assumptions about the number of people Wharton admits, that fact is you do not know. </p>
<p>Fact is, Wharton’s dean said the admit rate is 8 to 9 % four years ago, I showed you proof and that is that. So that’s its acceptance rate then, applications have gone way up since then.</p>
<p>Now enough about this, let us talk about what the OP wants, way to get off-topic.</p>
<p>I don’t think Wharton raises the selectivity tide. In 2004, its average SAT scores were only 14 points higher than the College’s. Since then, individualized data have not been released. Given that it’s roughly the same size as SEAS+Nursing, it should, if anything, only serve to even out the data. Consequently the University’s overall acceptance rate and SAT average are essentially reflective of the College’s true acceptance rate and SAT averages. Naturally I’m biased, but them’s the facts.</p>
<p>As for Penn SEAS vs. Columbia SEAS - the decision relies on your intended field of study. The overall engineering ranking are within the same ballpark (which is to say, good but not the best). Penn has a few excellent departments: bioengineering, for example, is a top-5 dept. It helps to have the nation’s #2 medical school 500 feet down the street. Computer science is also a top field, especially in artificial intelligence. Otherwise, I know very little about the school.</p>
<p>Final point: I know exceptionally little about SEAS admissions - for both Columbia and Penn - but it was my impression that both pools are self-selective and very high-scoring. Accordingly, the difference of 3 or 4 percentage points in such small applicant pools, especially when average SAT scores are equal, is not meaningful. They are both less selective than MIT/Caltech, and more selective than most/all other engineering schools. Or something to that regard (Cornell also stands somewhere in this middle ground).</p>
<p>I’m somewhat surprised by collegeboy’s gall to describe Columbia SEAS as selectively preferential to Wharton, but I’ve seen weirder.</p>