<p>How fierce?
Which one is the hardest to get into?
Pick one:
1. Wharton- Penn
2. Yale SCEA
3. Stanford SCEA
4. Harvard RD
5. Woodrow Wilson School- Princeton</p>
<p>Woodrow Wilson probably shouldn’t be on the list. You don’t apply to Woodrow Wilson until the end of your sophomore year since Woody Woo is for Juniors and Seniors only. Wharton is also in a different pool too since (at least I think) there are specific courses you have to take prior to applying. You would probably only really be able to compare 2. and 3. since RD admission is a little different from SCEA.</p>
<p>By pure acceptance rates:
- Wharton- Penn
~13%</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Yale SCEA
~14%</p></li>
<li><p>Stanford SCEA
~13%</p></li>
<li><p>Harvard RD
~7%</p></li>
<li><p>Woodrow Wilson School- Princeton
(50%)*(~8%) = ~4%</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Clearly, it’s harder to get into WWS. :P</p>
<p>But seriously, getting into Yale and Stanford SCEA are easier than getting into Harvard RD, and getting into Princeton’s WWS is harder than getting into Harvard RD since you have to both get into Princeton (maybe a tad bit easier than getting into Harvard) and then beat out half of the applicants to the WWS.</p>
<p>It’d be much fairer to compare this to getting into the Haas undergrad program at UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>I don’t claim to know everything about WWS, but from what I understand, the 50% admit rate for WWS isn’t really competitive. It’s more that they look for your focus that you REALLY want to study public policy and not just business or politics. They make sure that it is the right major for you and that your interests are not better suited to another department.</p>
<p>In my opinion, Harvard RD is the hardest to get in.</p>
<p>No, they definitely consider GPA highly. I know someone who was extremely passionate about public policy but she was rejected because of her mediocre GPA.</p>
<p>So GPA earned in Princeton? or HS GPA?</p>
<p>Thanks guys for detailed answers</p>
<p>Princeton GPA of course. You apply towards the end of your sophomore year.</p>
<p>I heard Princeton has grade deflation, right?</p>
<p>Yea but it doesn’t make nearly as big of a difference as people suggest.</p>
<p>
</p></li>
</ol>
<p>This is not an accurate use of statistics because you are mixing up sample spaces. The sample space for all of the events except being accepted to the Woodrow Wilson School is kids applying to undergraduate programs, they can be fairly compared. The sample space for being accepted to the Woodrow Wilson School is sophomores already at Princeton.</p>
<p>Thanks Pea!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree. When you apply for WWS as a current Princeton student, you’re not competing against those who got into Harvard, or anyone else outside the WWS applicant pool for that matter. It’s not that hard.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Obviously I was joking with the comparison. “Clearly, it’s harder to get into WWS. :P… But seriously,…”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sure it’s not that hard… If you already got into Princeton. The applicant pool for WWS is obviously much more qualified than Harvard applicants - the entire applicant pool is composed of students who already were admitted to Princeton and believe they have a shot at getting into WWS.</p>
<p>If you are looking purely at statistics and simplifying down to pure probabilities, then the comparison I used is valid (the probability of two independent events occurring is the product of their probabilities). Of course it’s not that simple though.</p>
<p>I agree that getting into WWS is not hard. But getting into Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc. is even easier.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>the probability of two independent events occurring is the product of their probabilities when the two event occur in the same sample space. Otherwise it’s gibberish.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And the admission rate for WWS is 50% from that pool, compared to ~7% for Harvard. And seriously, the applicant pool isn’t even that qualified. Just as many unqualified people take a shot at Harvard anyway for the prestige, tons of unqualified people do the same thing for WWS.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>These are also not independent events. Getting into WWS is dependent on getting into Princeton. If you don’t get into Princeton, the chances of getting into WWS is 0 i.e. it changes with acceptance into Princeton, so they’re not independent. Give up on this, pre-med :P</p>
<p>The main problem is, once again, that when you apply to WWS you’re not competing with the ones who got into Harvard. These people may on average be stronger than the ones in the WWS applicant pool, but are not part of it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I got into WWS and I don’t think I could have got into HSY “easily”. Fact is, I didn’t. At most, since P and Y have similar admit rates, so student quality is almost the same, and you could say getting into WWS is harder than getting into Yale. But H and S are just slightly more selective and have slightly better yield rates, so I think student quality on average is slightly higher. It’s not a fair comparison anymore.</p>
<p>anyway, don’t make me do anymore stats, because i’m not that great at it either. it’s just making me lose confidence for my finals</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s not true either – S has SCEA and accepts many students through that (so does Y), which permits their RD rate to be much lower. It also increases their yield. Furthermore, HYP applicants are different from S applicants (although differences exist between the first three as well, of course) in substantial manners, such as geographically.</p>
<p>So neither the yield nor the selectivity is an adequate indicator of student quality. In fact, S lags HYP slightly in average SAT score (don’t know about GPA). That’s a trash measure, too – but more relevant than the metrics you are using.</p>
<p>Hey just cuz I’m premed doesn’t mean I can’t do stats! >: (</p>
<p>The statistical sample space is actually the same for getting into WWS and getting into Princeton. It’s {admitted, not admitted}. And even if they had different sample spaces, that doesn’t mean you can’t do statistics on them. Getting an ace of clubs (2 sample spaces: {1, 2,… 13} and {clubs, hearts, etc.}) is still (1/13)*(1/4) = 1/52.
<a href=“http://www.emathzone.com/tutorials/basic-statistics/sample-space.html[/url]”>Concept of Proportion | eMathZone;
<p>screwitlah’s right about admission to WWS being dependent on getting into Princeton, but the probability is still calculated the same way.
<a href=“Integrated Publishing - Your source for military specifications and educational publications”>Integrated Publishing - Your source for military specifications and educational publications;
<p>p1 = 0.08
p2 = 0.50
p = p1*p2 = 0.04.</p>
<p>EDIT: But if screwitlah says so, I guess getting into WWS isn’t as hard as getting into H, Y, and S… Although I think getting into Princeton’s really only marginally easier than getting into Harvard, Yale, and Stanford…</p>
<p>Thank you!!!
Just made me want to go to Princeton even more…
Hope to see you guys one day!</p>
<p>Thanks so much for such kind replies.
Have a nice Fathers’ Day!</p>