<p>Well, not really. No one really "brags" about their accomplishments, so it doesn't really come as surprise, if you get what I'm saying. These people usually get into decent schools anyway.</p>
<p>It's unfortunate that, as some have mentioned, students in areas where there are few or none top school acceptances can easily be misled by inexperienced counselors or "Pollyanna" perceptions of college admissions. My neighbor's nephew, who applied to Harvard last year, thought that the alumni interview he was notified about meant he was in the top 1/3 of applicants, whereas in reality the interview is offered to anyone who wants it. He was ultimately rejected and ended up at the local state school. </p>
<p>My HS sends few to the top schools. Since 1990, we've had 1 go to Harvard, 2 to Yale (3 if you count me, but I'm not sure I'm going), and 1 to UPenn. No one has gone to Princeton since the 80s, and no one has ever gone to Stanford. Each year sees quite a few applicants to the top 20 schools, but rarely do any of them get in. Two years ago, a girl applied to 18 schools and was rejected at 15 of them (the three acceptances were all instate publics), including all the Ivy League schools and Duke. </p>
<p>That being said, we've had 1 Presidential Scholar Candidate every year for the last 7 years and there are usually a few students in each class competitive enough for at least the lower Ivies -- but most of them are content with the top 30 instate public.</p>
<p>One of my teachers was telling our class how she had two students a couple years ago who were certain they were getting into Dartmouth (everything looked good, grades, tests, etc.) so all they applied to other than that was UNH. Needless to say both are at UNH (not that there is anything wrong with UNH but you get the idea).</p>
<p>Thanks for reviving this thread. It's really important for applicants to have some perspective.</p>
<p>In what areas do Texas and Wisconsin (which are both good schools, but not spectacular) trump the Ivies? And how is Northwestern on par with them? No one is saying that all the great schools are on the east coast (Northwestern, UChicago, Rice, Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech, and WashU aren't, just to name a few), but I personally don't think that state schools like Texas and Wisconsin are on par with Ivies. UMich, UVA, and Berkeley (among a few others) might be, though... but I don't really know much about the ones you mentioned. Enlighten me?</p>
<p>madisonsqrgordon: your opinion is quite unique on the CC boards- it's very refreshing to hear someone not obsessing about rank... i hope northwestern works out!</p>
<p>to be perfectly honest though, i'm not sure if northwestern and your other schools are completely on the same level- now i'm not saying that those are bad schools, i'm just saying that northwestern is... northwestern!! it is an amazing school with amazing faculty and students and is, in my opinion, one of the best university's to attend (if i were smart enough, i would chose northwestern over HYPSM anyday). while it may be dumb to concentrate only on rankings, there is still SOME truth to them</p>
<p>But the truth is that often the Ivies trump in terms of placement regardless of "program" rank. For example even though the Ivies might not have undergrad business schools they easily have among the best undergrad business placement in the country, better than those undergrad business schools listed above.</p>
<p>Certain program ranks matter, however. Journalism (maybe), film, art, computer science all matter. Things like business and history: not important.</p>
<p>Some great students who are ALSO "great applicants" get rejected- obviously-
Our state U here is top 50 and the honors program is nice, so I haven't heard of anyone around here who has had to go to "tier 5" And what the heck is tier five? I thought there were 3- Ivies and other top schools, a lil lower down + the better state schools, and then everything else... tier 5 is like what? CC?</p>
<p>
[quote]
contrary to what some statistically high students may believe, a true safety does not include ANY college that accepts less than 50% of its applicants
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quote from first response, but the 2006 (or 2005 i dunno) Intel winner told news reporters that his safety was MIT :)</p>