<p>that’s what i heard, but every year at my school, just about everyone who applies to duke gets in, but no one gets into upenn.</p>
<p>I would say they are exactly equal. Different schools work in mysterious ways.</p>
<p>yes, for the most part i would say they are as similar as it gets. </p>
<p>Certain high schools do have a better track record w/ different schools, so Duke could be easier for your school. that is def. possible.</p>
<p>ive been under the impression that duke is a lot more selective than penn, maybe that has to do with my region (midwest)</p>
<p>penn regular school (not like wharton) is equivalent in selectivity to duke</p>
<p>wow, that's suprising; anything else upenn is comparable to?</p>
<p>Just remember Penn wasn't that selective even as late as early 90's. Look at this post about Cornell's experience which is revealing. Penn had ED acceptance rate of 80% and RD of 40% in '92.</p>
<p>"The following is what Cornell says about its cometition: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Johns Hopkins and Washington Universities -- the institutions that Cornell "wins" most often against when in competition for students who are commonly admitted: </p></li>
<li><p>Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern and Penn -- Institutions Cornell "wins" between 30 percent to 60 percent of the time in direct competition: and </p></li>
<li><p>Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale -- Institutions that most often "win" in direct competition for freshment with Cornell." </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Where I live, Penn is far more selective than Duke. But I live in the South.</p>
<p>WOW Pennster, that is an interesting Pdf. Columbia/ Penn have done some amazing things in the last eight years...</p>
<p>Creative use of USNews ranking. There was an Atlantic Monthly article on Penn's admission site that discussed how Penn was ranked very low and not many had heard about it, and that most thought it was Penn State, etc. So Penn decided to do something about it by forming a committee to improve USNews ranking, went on a marketing spree, etc. and improved the ranking. Some critics said that Penn was cooking the numbers to improve the ranking, but nevertheless it seem to have worked. As Penn rose in rankings applications poured in. I imagin it is similar with Columbia, execept it could be more to do with the rise of NYC as the place to be.</p>
<p>The article is no longer on the website.</p>
<p>Penn has improved incredibly. They keep going up.</p>
<p>Duke had an acceptance rate of 25% of '08. Penn had 20%.</p>
<p>Duke's was around 22%, actually, and Penn's was about 21%. And that "20%" for Penn includes Wharton, which is much harder to get into than the college. I'd say that Penn College and Duke are pretty equal, with Duke being a tad more selective.</p>
<p>It also includes Engineering (with 850 students, and a 32% acceptance rate), and Nursing (with 123 students and a 41.8% acceptance rate).</p>
<p>Surely these heightened acceptance rates for 970 students outweigh the 13.6% acceptance rate for Wharton's 484 acceptees.</p>
<p>Some fun facts:</p>
<p>For '09, Penn admitted 3,912 students out of around 18,800 for a 20.8 acceptance rate.</p>
<p>If you subtract Engineering applicants (around 2657) and Nursing applicants (around 295), you'll have a total of 15,848 applicants (or just about). </p>
<p>Now subtract the 850 admitted to Engineering, and 123 admitted to Nursing for an admitted number of 2939. Admission rate declines to 18.5% when only including College and Wharton. </p>
<p>Also excluding Wharton's around 3559 applicants, for a total applicant number of 12,289. Wharton admitted 484 students, so removing those, Penn College has a 20% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Wharton is too few students to have a huge impact on acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Duke had an acceptance rate of 22% for '09. It admitted 3949 students, and expects 1660 for a yield of around 42%. Penn admitted 3912 students for a class of 2400 for an expected yield rate of 61%.</p>
<p>Another important thing to consider though is the fact that Duke takes the common app(I believe, correct me if im wrong) Also, Dukes acceptance rate a few years ago was like 27, so its really gone down since then. A lot has to do with the basketball team, and alot has to do with the fact that US News ranked Duke 5th, right behind Penn and tied with MIT and CalTech. Penn still doesnt use the common app, but if it ever does, I wouldnt be surprised to see its overall acceptance rate go down to 17-18%.</p>
<p>The yield may decrease, though. :(</p>
<p>duke is much harder than penn, at least in the mid-atlantic</p>
<p>Duke or Penn. Either way, you definitely will have great opportunites in life and when you tell people where you went to school, most people will say "Wow, I'm impressed."</p>
<p>Agreed.....</p>
<p>No one is arguing that Duke isn't impressive. They're arguing if it is AS impressive as Penn.</p>
<p>From my 32 years of being on this earth and the people I have talked to, personally and professionally, Duke is mostly prestigious with southerners. It's kind of like Vanderbilt, Emory, UVA...They're all prestigious institutions, but more so with the south. Just like people on the west coast view Stanford and Berkeley as their "Ivies". Some schools have a regional prestige and others carry it's weight nationally...depending on who you ask and where.</p>