<p>I read in a book that Princeton is the only school that accepts less than 50% of applicants who score a perfect 1600 on their SATs.
I know someone who scored a 1600 on the SAT. His results:
Accepted:
Rutgers
Cornell
Georgia Tech</p>
<p>Rejected:
Princeton
MIT
CalTech
Stanford</p>
<p>I know someone else who scored 1400 and currently attends Princeton. There are two people in my high school who have been accepted to Princeton and they're not even valedictorian in my crappy high school. Does Princeton even have a business school? When I flip the pages in my US News America's Best Colleges book 2005 edition, the only page I see Princeton ranked number one is under Best National Universities, which is basically the top colleges overall. I'd have to peruse through the pages to find Princeton listed anywhere else in the book.</p>
<p>Princeton does not have any undergraduate "schools" besides engineering. It has no business school, no pre-med, no pre-law. 1600s mean very little, and if you looked at the national statistic, most 1600s get rejected at almost all of the top universities in 1 nice swoop. Why? Manyu students that receive 1600s believe it is an easy way into college. They dont have outstanding ECs, didnt really work on their essays, thus, easy to boot. Princeton is very strong in its undergraduate departments (thats why it ranks very well). It is among the best in many areas in social sciences and humanities. It is also very strong in the research sciences and rather strong in engineering.</p>
<p>well, Princeton does have pre-med and pre-law (not as majors of course...no colleges really have those as majors). However, Princeton does not have a law, business, or medical school. The good aspects of this are that the profs are there really to teach undergrads and that the focus of the university is the undergrads, although Harvard and Yale do an exceptional job (yeah, i know...some disagreements here so shush you people) of the undergrad focus also.</p>
<p>A 1600 isn't going to guarantee an admission to Princeton. Neither will be being valedictorian or salutatorian. The applicant is looked at from the aspects of what has been available to him/her. Other factors could include URM status, first-generation college goer, unusual family circumstances, immigrant, special talent, special sport, etc. </p>
<p>Most top schools (HYPSM) like to boast about how many 1600s and valedictorians they reject. At a Yale info session, I remember the adcom saying they reject more than half of the 1600s who apply.</p>
<p>My Harvard app was pretty damn inadequate. My Yale app was better but I did decide to apply on the 30th of December when the deadline was the next day :p</p>
<p>i don't know about you but a 50% acceptance rate sounds a hell of a lot better than 10% acceptance rate for simply only answering 3 or 4 more problems correctly on one exam</p>
<p>well, its more of a bell curve. Its not like 50% acceptance rate for 1600s and 10% rate for kids who got a 1590. The acceptance rate probably drops as the SAT score drops.</p>
<p>However, having a perfect SAT score is nice.</p>
<p>Yeah, I shouldn't have applied early to Yale ( i was one of the few EA rejects). My Yale app compared to my other apps was horrible.</p>
<p>And I mailed my Princeton app January 3....when WAS it due anyway?</p>
<p>The coolest thing about Princeton was that I sent my app somewhere in FEBRUARY :) Actually, I sent it in December, but they didn't receive it :( so I sent it by e-mail in February:) and got accepted :) I love Princeton !!! :)</p>
<p>one of my friends scored a 1600 (val), accepted by P, rejected by HYSMC, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, w/l dartmouth, with a LOT of recognition for drama, math...colleges are weird, don't put much thought into the importance of the exam...</p>
<p>"one of my friends scored a 1600 (val), accepted by P, rejected by HYSMC, Cornell, Columbia, Brown, w/l dartmouth, with a LOT of recognition for drama, math...colleges are weird, don't put much thought into the importance of the exam..."</p>
<p>Wow, your friend actually applied to 7 ivies? I'm assuming, but I could see someone like that getting overconfident about his 1600, awards,etc. and seeing Brown and Dartmouth as safeties. This overconfidence probably came out in his applications and hurt him. Of course, valedictorians with 1600 SATs, great ECs, and perfects applications get rejected. But for humanities' sake, I hope the amount of these perfect students who get rejected at 75% of the ivy league is much lower than some people would have you believe.</p>
<p>Of course, your friend could have had the best application ever, I just made up the scenario for argument's sake.</p>
<p>Well Princeton IS known for strategic admissions so that's why you might think it's so weird. They tend not to admit people who they think are good enough to get into HYSM. Instead, they admit people who are just below the threshold. It's in a well-known study done by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).</p>
<p>right ... as so many people have told you that you have been wrong before, it seems as if saying anything would be pointless. no offense, but outside of the CC-world, its just HYP, not HYPSM, just like to point that out.</p>
<p>
[quote]
They tend not to admit people who they think are good enough to get into HYSM. Instead, they admit people who are just below the threshold.