<p>“Yale=Stanford > Duke = Washington University in St. Louis > Dartmouth”</p>
<p>Should be more like Yale=Stanford>Dartmouth>>Duke>=WashU</p>
<p>“She did not do any EC…I did lots and ISEF and JSHS nationals and internationals. She got accepted ED. I ask myself, how can someone who did no EC or volunteer for anything get into Dartmouth, this says a lot for the college.”</p>
<p>People like this get into HYP. Sometime they have one thing the college really want (i.e. from Idaho, from Alsace, etc.).</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the SAT 75% percentile for Yale is 800 and 790 in the three sections. The ones for Dartmouth and Duke are 790s and 780s (I believe two 790s and one 780 for each, not completely sure though). Like what someone already said, Dartmouth is a reach for most (with exception of some legacies, URMs, princes, etc.), and Duke is a reach/high match for most.</p>
<p>I happen to know a kid whose counselor told him that he could get into all the schools he applied to for sure with the exception of Harvard and Stanford (he applied to Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, Duke, WashU, Swarthmore, Cornell, and UChicago); he got rejected by all with the exception of Swarthmore and UChicago.</p>
<p>A lot of high school kids feel a sense of entitlement these days until they get rejected by most of the schools they apply to.</p>