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[quote]
On this list, Columbia and Brown seem to be noticeably more selective than Duke, since admit rate is about 10% lower. Columbia's admit rate is lower than half of Duke's admit rate. Out of the ivies, only Cornell's selectivity seems similar to Duke's.
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<p>This conclusion doesn't take into account the strength of the applicant pool. I think DukeEgr93's SAT range assessment more accurately accounts for that.</p>
<p>Duke did not have a 23% acceptance rate.. it was more like 21% last year.</p>
<p>I wouldn't be surprised if Duke has a stronger applicant pool academically.
At least in the Northeastern school I came from, you had a lot more 'unqualified' people apply to the Ivies while only the best would apply to Duke.
This may be (and likely is) different in the South.</p>
<p>The Ivies have lower admit rates partially on the basis of their being Ivy Leagues. Some people apply to college with the goal of getting into any one of these schools. If Duke was in the Ivy League I bet acceptance would drop 10% just by association, because apps would increase a lot.</p>
<p>Look...the bottom line is that admissions into elite schools can be rather random.</p>
<p>When you have roughly 20,000+ individuals applying for some 1600 or so spots, there are going to be THOUSANDS of individuals with incredible stats who will be rejected.</p>
<p>There is no way around that.</p>
<p>daveb.. it could be worse..
i was deferred at yale and rejected by both duke AND northwestern which i naively thought were my 'target' schools.. now im waiting on columbia, cornell, stanford, harvard, princeton, upenn, yale, and tufts. needless to say, im expecting a looooooooooot of rejection letters this monday and certainly am not looking forward to it..</p>
<p>yea I never knew college admissions would be THIS tough and random until I actually experienced it firsthand yesterday haha:</p>
<p>Early Approval letter from Stanford, Accepted by Northwestern</p>
<p>waitlisted by Duke, Rice, WUSTL (this one wasn't that surprising though)</p>
<p>
[quote]
This conclusion doesn't take into account the strength of the applicant pool. I think DukeEgr93's SAT range assessment more accurately accounts for that.
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<p>Duke's applicant pool is strong as any other school's. SAT range assessment is pretty similar for most of the top 15 schools. SAT range for admitted students won't be much different between Duke and Harvard. Besides, at the top schools, many factors other than SAT and grades go into consideration for admission. These can't be seen in hard stats. But, some schools happen to recieve more applicants that are this qualified, yet have no room for them. This is why these schools (Columbia) are more selective than Duke, not necessarily an indication of the strength of the applicant pool at either school. (both schools' applicant pools are outstanding)</p>
<p>ahh screw the rest! they don't deserve you! go to stanford! <3
congraaaatss! =)
i dont find out about my stanford decision until this friday but i'm mentally prepared for a rejection..</p>
<p>Well, sara, I feel your pain. I hear from Brown (again), Cornell, Dartmouth, UPenn, and Yale on Monday, Tufts on Tuesday, and Wesleyan sometime next week. Talk about nail-biters.</p>
<p>i could barely handle 2 rejections in a row on the same day.. i don't know how i'd be handle 6 decisions this monday..
well let's hope for the best and keep our fingers crossed! you never know how the admissions process works.. such a big mystery so there may possibly be good news in store for us :)</p>
<p>just out of curiosity, did anyone on this thread get into WUSTL? everyone i know was waitlisted</p>
<p>I got into WUSTL.</p>
<p>I got into WUSTL</p>
<p>in at northwestern. in at duke.
(please don't hurt me)</p>
<p>In at Duke and WUSTL, waitlisted at Northwestern. No idea why. Luckily for me, NU was my 3rd choice. However, I could see where people with different priorities could start to become really angry. Sorry, guys. Adcoms suck.</p>
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<p>I agree that Brown is a bit more selective than Duke. They also look for different types of people. From my high school (a wealthy, public, 90% white), people would routinely get into Harvard and Yale and rejected from Brown. Brown just hates my high school for some reason....</p>
<p>But if you want to get into Brown, apply as a transfer! It is much much much easier than Duke. I think it's because transfer students aren't eligible for financial aid at Brown. I know somebody who got rejected from UMich ugrad, got into Illinois, and waitlisted at Wisconsin, and eventually got in off the waitlist at Wisconsin and enrolled there. Got into Brown by transferring. Also, had a friend at Umich transfer to Brown, and another who was at Vandy get into Brown, but chose Notre Dame over it. These people would have never gotten into Brown directly out of high school....Definitely weird....Duke's transfer acceptance rate is extremely low, btw.</p>
<p>i just wanted to add...last year, i did some careful analysis w/ bunch of my friends. It seemed that last year, most of my friends who applied to NU and were waitlisted were 'usual' qualified students for NU. Cheking our h.s.'s naviance website, all these students' gpa and test scores comfortably fell into the range of only acceptances and few waitlists. NU, traditionally, is a school with rather predictable admission, and everything changed since they switched to commonapp and applications skyrocketed. Interestingly, out of 12 friends that were waitlisted, 8 of them ended up getting in during summer of last year. This, as we found out, was largely due to the fact that NU's yield rate last year was the lowest in NU's history, despite its lowest acceptance rate in its history. Basically, NU had to fill up the class with bunch of waitlisted students anyway in the end. So, my hint to all the NU waitlisted students is that they all have a solid shot at getting in. Unlike WashU, NU doesn' waitlist everyone. They waitlist only the applicants that they feel are qualified.</p>
<p>I disagree with the statement that WashU waitlists EVERYONE.</p>
<p>I DO agree that they waitlist a ridiculous amount of people, but perhaps they just think that they have a large pool of qualified applicants that they just can't take.</p>
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But if you want to get into Brown, apply as a transfer! It is much much much easier than Duke.
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In fact, Brown is harder to get into, albeit not by much. </p>
<p>3% vs. 7.4% acceptance rate</p>
<p>As for NU.. funny story about that.</p>
<p>Last year, NU only accepted one kid from my school. He got into Columbia and obviously chose it over NU. </p>
<p>Two others from my school got off the waitlist and are currently attending.</p>