<p>Which school is harder to get into? They both seem equally selective but one of my friends was absolutley convinced that it was much harder to get into Brown than Dartmouth. Any truth to this?</p>
<p>As an admit to both schools, I think the numbers may indicate that Brown would be harder to get into. However, Dartmouth gets less applicants in general and they are more consciously self-selected than those at Brown. Dartmouth applicants have to get used to the idea of "living in isolation" while Brown gets even more applicants for its "coolness factor". So in that respect, Brown gets a few thousand more applicants than Dartmouth; both accept around the same number; Brown comes out with the lower admit rate.</p>
<p>If you want to look at median SAT scores, then Dartmouth clearly has the edge. However, overall the schools are comparable in terms of "difficulty" and you shouldn't base your decisions on this.</p>
<p>Brown is known to be totally unpredictable in terms of who gets in while Dartmouth is a bit easier to figure. If that helps.</p>
<p>yea brown's idiosyncratic admissions probably add to its "prestige"</p>
<p>The overall acceptance rates for the Class of 2010 are very close between Brown and Dartmouth. It really is no easier to get into Dartmouth than Brown. Columbia has a lower acceptance rate due to the very large number of New York City applicants.</p>
<p>In order of selectivity for total acceptance rates:</p>
<p>Yale 8.64%
Harvard 9.27%
Columbia College 9.64%
Princeton 10.2%
Stanford 10.88%
Columbia (overall) 11.42%
MIT 12.96%
Brown 13.79%
Dartmouth 15.43%
Penn 17.69%
Duke 19.52%
Columbia SEAS 22.74%
Cornell 24.65%
Northwestern 28.23%</p>
<p>Brown gets even more applicants for its "coolness factor"...C'mon, Dartmouth is way cooler than Brown. (And not just in terms of temperature).</p>
<p>In my experience (as someone who got into both and as an interviewer), they are equal but have institutional preferences. Dartmouth has a bigger weight on scores, and Brown a bigger wieght on class rank. .</p>
<p>Lol iceman, well I agree that Dartmouth is cooler, but in general across the nation, I think Brown picks up more points :P</p>
<p>well, USNEWS ranked dartmouth 9 and brown 15...brown was the lowest ranked ivy which certainly isn't a great thing...yeaaahhh big green</p>
<p>well i love both schools and i really think theyre both completely comparable. but, i really dont think browns lower usnews ranking is an indictment of any sort. they just care less about scores than dartmouth, and high scores increase your usnews ranking. also brown does have a substantially lower endowment...its still 2billion so i dont think its a huge problem, but that also lowers their ranking...</p>
<p>brown doesn't have a substantially lower endowment. as of very recently brown was at 2.1 billion to dartmouth's 2.3
fairly nominal and also only one part of the pie. for example, brown is much better positioned than dartmouth to draw revenue from research grants.
remember that endowment is a tricky thing to interpret...a school like penn with a relatively small endowment is able to pay it's professors a great salary than many schools with much higher endowments because of the money it brings in from other sources</p>