<p>I've heard of people from Atlanta getting into less difficult Ivies (Brown, Cornell, even Columbia) but not getting into Duke--they speculate that this is because the Southeast, especially metropolitan areas, makes up a disproportionally large percentage of the applicant pool to Duke but relatively lower for the Ivies. Any truth to this difference in difficulty based on region? Thanks!</p>
<p>Brown has a lower acceptance rate (this year will probably be Brown’s ~9% vs Duke’s ~12%), but that is more due to a difference in applicant numbers than student quality. I think Duke might actually have a higher 25th%-75th% SAT range than Brown, because from my (limited, anecdotal) experience, Duke’s admissions department is more stat based, whereas Brown’s is a little more holistic/based on ECs + essays. </p>
<p>All in all I’d say it’s too close to call. They are pretty much in exactly the same selectivity tier, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are an equal amount of kids getting into Duke and rejected from Brown as there are getting rejected from Duke and into Brown each year.</p>