<p>Dartmouth and brown are about the same selectivity (Dartmouth has the slight edge with stats). Both are more selective than Penn (slightly) and Cornell in terms of acceptance rate. Both are (slightly) less selective than Columbia. </p>
<p>Overall when you put all of it together I would say HYP are the same, Dartmouth/Brown/Penn/Columbia are the same, and all are more selective than Cornell.</p>
<p>Totally agree that there isn’t a difference between a few percentage points. But if you look at percent accepted and stats, its clear that there are three categories of selectivity within the Ivies, HYP > BCDP > Cornell in terms of selectivity.</p>
<p>Selectivity isn’t really something you can trace precisely to acceptance rates.</p>
<p>For example, Columbia College has a lower acceptance rate than Princeton, but Princeton is a patently more selective program. Similarly, Penn, Brown and Dartmouth might appear to be significantly less selective than Columbia, but this is obviously not the case.</p>
<p>Columbia simply has a much larger applicant pool than its peers, probably due to its location.</p>
<p>“For example, Columbia College has a lower acceptance rate than Princeton, but Princeton is a patently more selective program. Similarly, Penn, Brown and Dartmouth might appear to be significantly less selective than Columbia, but this is obviously not the case.”</p>
<p>Do you have a speck of fact to support this claim?</p>
<p>I don’t understand this obsession with acceptance rates. </p>
<p>A school could get a bunch of 5 year olds to apply, reject them all, and drop their rate simply because they were able to do a slick marketing campaign and reject so many people. </p>
<p>I just don’t know. Duke, Northwestern, UChicago, and Johns Hopkins all have relatively high acceptance rates, yet I doubt any reasonable person would consider the education they offer or level of research they produce inferior to non-HYP Ivies.</p>
<p>When you’re talking about undergraduate education, applejack, the institutions you list are far from the same quality even within the group you selected, forget about compared to a separate group.</p>
<p>There’s a lot more to this all than acceptance rates or even selectivity that matters a lot more, hence my original statement in this thread remains true.</p>
<p>Slipper is right on the 3 tiers of selectivity.</p>
<p>HYPton > CDBPenn> Cornell</p>
<p>Doesn’t mean that Harvard offers a better undergraduate education than Brown. In fact, I’d be willing to bet the opposite. This certainly seems to be the case looking at my company’s internal recruitment numbers for this year…</p>
<p>the > you are laying out are so tiny, they are insignificant. at least from the first to second tier. i’ll give you weight on the first to third.</p>
<p>Hmmm… I think most who know it would agree that Harvard’s undergrad education is woefully overrated. </p>
<p>If you need to believe that there’s a significant difference between the quality of education one receives at Brown, Duke, or Northwestern, you go right ahead. It might help you sleep better at night. </p>
<p>You’ve drunk the Kool Aid. I’ve been in the real world and can assure you it depends on the individuals. All of these schools provide ample opportunity for individuals to thrive. Some might prefer the open culture of Brown, while others the rigid structure of Chicago or the sports of Duke.</p>
<p>I agree with applejack, it really depends in the student
For some a school such as Brown may be great and allow them to have as much freedom and opportunities to succeed as they need but some may be lost without guidance and structure.
And to ask whether Brown is easier to get into than other ivies is completly ridiculous. Everyone of the ivies is different, they can’t really be compared. One girl I knew from when I was young dreamed of going to Borwn since she was young. She was valedictorian at a top high school, had SAT scores 10 points away from perfect and her dad is a Brown professor. She was rejected by Brown but she now goes to Harvard. So Borwn is not necessarily easier to get into than Harvard or other ivy schools. It really does depend on the student.</p>
<p>Of course it depends entirely on the student and a student going any of these places can do well. A student going somewhere a whole lot worse can do even better.</p>
<p>But the schools you’ve chosen to list are actually so different that their overall offerings are quite different than one another and while they may be equally great in some ways and serve particular interests well in someways, overall and in fundamentals they are not equals even amongst themselves. I say this having friends at all of the places mentioned and I doubt any of them would disagree.</p>
<p>It’s not a value judgment-- a student studying journalism will probably be happier and receive more directed learning at Northwestern, but that does not mean it offers the same overall intellectual preparation of UChicago, for instance. That’s not necessarily the judgment I’m making, just an example of the kind of “inequality” I’m talking about.</p>
<p>I’m a huge proponent and always have been on these boards of ignore ranking, ignore prestige, ignore everything but the individual school and whether it offers what you feel you need to succeed in whatever your goal is. The rest is all ********.</p>