<p>Honesly alvie that is complete bs. There is ZERO difference between the quality of Penn and Dartmouth students. Revealed preference studies actually uniformly show Dartmouth with the edge. Also higher avg SAT scores. Also, as admitone noted, Dartmouth’s acceptance rate is now lower by a decent margin, as during the last three years Dartmouth apps have surged while Penn’s have been flat. I don’t think one high school is a good indicator of difference between student quality. Each college has its own preferences; i.e. in the new york area I would say Penn is tougher, while in Massachusetts Dartmouth is more selective.</p>
<p>Wow I’m new to this board and maybe its just where I’m from but Dartmouth is much harder to get into from my high school. I mean at a 12% acceptance rate its only two percent away from Princeton. Dartmouth accepted almost no one this year, Penn had more than a few get in.</p>
<p>You guys have to realize that Penn is also a hell of a lot BIGGER than Dartmouth. That makes a difference in selectivity percentages (and OMG, Harvard’s was probably in the 20-30’s several years ago!!! That’s higher than Penn’s now!)</p>
<p>Is this argument really going on? It’s inane. Both good schools and totally different. People get admitted to one and rejected at the other all the time, whatever.</p>
<p>4 people at my school got likely letters from Dartmouth…that’s how desperate they are. None of them attended–two went to Wharton, one Columbia, and the fourth Yale</p>
<p>admitone, your sentiment was credited until your final sentence, which makes absolutely no sense.</p>
<p>Slipper - I’m from MA (went to an all-girls, uber-competitive high school), and I can tell you confidently that my year, Penn was more difficult. The girl who went to Dartmouth got in off of the WL after having been rejected at Penn.</p>
<p>Obviously, Dartmouth is as selective, and this year pulled ahead significantly (Penn had an admittedly poor showing). But we both know that 2 years back, the schools were deadlocked; and this is likely to be the case in the future, as well.</p>
<p>I’ll give you one thing - Penn’s draw in NYC is probably its strongest showing. That’s because of the bizarre confluence of Penn alums in the area, trumping up the school and harrying ad-coms for their own, legacied children to be admitted. Just look in the NYtimes celebrations page on Sundays, they’re always Penn grads.</p>
<p>What about someone who gets into Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell, Brown, Stanford? Should they select on the basis of alleged selectivity ratings? Perhaps this person should come up with their own selectivity rating taking into acount acedemics, types of kids, resources, location, and general feel? That’s what I had to do this year…and I have no doubt many other people as well. Both Penn and Dartmouth (and a ton of other schools btw that don’t even make these ‘lists’) are amazing, interesting, stuffed full of savy, great a-test taking folks. These comparrisons do show the sort of person, however, who is drawn to the ivy school, competative to the max. Why not just whip 'em out and measure? </p>
<p>Anyway, I couldn’t base my choice merely on the schools selectivity. If I did I might be tempted to follow up with the schools I chose not to attend with a missive reading thus: </p>
<p>“This year 30,000 U.S. schools accepted this student. The competetion was fierce. Even though your school had wonderfull charactaristics, I went with ______. But because of your school’s fantastic record, please feel free to accept a position on my personal wait-list.”</p>
<p>alvie… ditto. I am also one who chose Penn over Dartmouth… and couldn’t be happier.</p>
<p>I am curious to know how penn students feel now that their school has the same acceptance percentage as Cornell. Pretty embarassing… Makes me think that it is reverting to its “dregs of the ivy league” position.</p>
<p>i’m not embarrassed. and you can take your ■■■■■■■■ elsewhere.</p>
<p>Sorry Scotchtape - are YOU embarrassed to see two people on this thread alone turned down Dartmouth for Penn? Get off of this board.</p>
<p>Muerto - I was talking about my high school. We had 5 Penn accepts out of 12 people who applied, only one Dartmouth accept of 10 people who applied. I personally have noticed that Penn is on the decline whereas Dartmouth has been getting super selective. Anyway I’m attending Brown next year (chose it over Columbia and Amherst…didn’t apply to Penn was rejected from Dartmouth) so I’m not sure why I care, but this Penn love is crazy. Get over yourselves, your acceptance rate is so much higher than most of the Ivies.</p>
<p>this is really dumb. </p>
<p>penn and cornell have the highest admit rates because they are by far the two largest ivies. that says nothing about quality of student body.</p>
<p>penn has to fill 2400 slots; dartmouth has 1300ish (?)
obviously dmouth’s admit rate will be lower</p>
<p>I just don’t get it. Look at Brown vs. Duke threads or Dartmouth vs. Duke/Columbia/Penn, etc. Everyone is super nice and acknowledges its a fit decision. Penn kids, on the other hand continue to insist their school is superior when its been falling faster than any other Ivy BY FAR. Four years ago Dartmouth and Penn had around the same acceptance rate, now dartmouth (and Brown, Columbia) are significantly lower, yet people on those boards are not nearly as arrogant. Once again- get over yourselves. Play nice and maybe more people will apply</p>
<p>[Dartmouth</a> Says Yes to 12% of Applicants; Fewer Than Half Will say Yes to Dartmouth - Dartmouth Club of Kentucky](<a href=“http://www.dartmouth-club-ky.org/2009/04/03/dartmouth-12-applicants-dartmouth/]Dartmouth”>http://www.dartmouth-club-ky.org/2009/04/03/dartmouth-12-applicants-dartmouth/)</p>
<p>Here is a good read. It says they estimate that Dartmouth will have 1,090 freshmen for the class of 2013 and that less than half of those admitted will go to Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Class of 2012 for Penn had 62% of students admitted attending Penn and they had 2,445 total freshman. Compare 2,445 to 1,090; that is why Dartmouth has a lower acceptance rate, even though more students turn down Dartmouth than they do Penn.</p>
<p>i highly doubt the purported arrogance of a select few on these boards has any meaningful effect on the number of students who apply to a given school</p>
<p>you can’t just look at the admit rates all the time</p>
<p>admitone - I’ll be the first to admit that Penn had a TERRIBLE showing in admissions this year, but they’re still highly competitive. 5/12 got in from your high school? That’s actually absurd; congratulations for having such talented students. Seriously.</p>
<p>However, to illustrate the myopia of your comments, and Penn’s supposedly sky-high admit rate, let’s compare Penn and Dartmouth in a pool of 12 kids, like the scenario of your high school.</p>
<p>Penn would accept 17%, or 2.04 applicants. Dartmouth would accept 12%, or 1.44 applicants. That’s not really a huge difference…</p>
<p>Do you see how ridiculous this is? “Penn is sliding”? Sliding into what, still-incredible selectivity? Yes, we had a poor year, but it was still incredibly difficult to get admitted.</p>
<p>This is a thread, which was originally made to discuss a second thread, was started over 2 months ago.</p>
<p>Let’s move on people.</p>
<p>Everyone keeps saying that… saying it doesn’t make it end the thread. it actually prolongs it… :)</p>
<p>well IMO dartmouth is harder to get into and more well revered than penn.</p>