<p>so i noticed on the brown site that about 1/3 of the incoming class has historically been valedictorians, and 1/4 of the total EDers admitted were vals also, which definitely isn't the case everywhere, especially the other ivies. would you say the acceptance rate is relatively high for valedictorians at dartmouth?</p>
<p>It may be high for valedictorians, but being a valedictorisn doesn't guarantee admissions. Also, often times valedictorians also have other things going on for them, such as EC and awards, that help them get accepted. Correlation doesn't imply causation.</p>
<p>i know that correlation doesn't imply causation, but it seems to be more of a factor for dartmouth, since princeton's acceptance rate for vals is only 17%, and brown's is only 25%, while 1/3 of dartmouth's incoming class is comprised of valedictorians. i am a valedictorian with some strong leadership and other good EC's but i was wondering if the valedictorian status would give me an extra boost at dartmouth or not.</p>
<p>I think it won't hurt you.</p>
<p>...haha, thanks. i was pretty worried about it hurting me...</p>
<p>There's a difference between X% of the incoming class were valedictorians, and Dartmouth admits X% of valedictorians. A school could admit all the valedictorians that apply and still only have 17% of their incoming class be valedictorians if not all that many apply(not that this is reasonable for Princeton). Similarly, if every valedictorian in the world applied to Dartmouth, they could admit a very small percentage of valedictorians while still having 1/3 of their incoming class being valedictorians. If one assumes that roughly the same percentage of valedictorians apply to both Dartmouth and Princeton, then it becomes a meaningful comparison.</p>
<p>I think they admitted around 40% vals and end up with ~31%. You can check the school newspaper</p>
<p>Our school doesn't have vals or sals. It got to be too ridiculous and stupid-competitive, so they just did away with it.</p>
<p>Now, if you want to give a speech at graduation, you have to write it out beforehand and win the contest in order to speak.</p>
<p>yeah i checked how many of their incoming class are vals, and what percentage of admitted students there are. i also assumed that the number applying to dartmouth and princeton was roughly the same, and then calculated it that way, but i also thought the numbers might be completely different, because more might apply to one school in the ED round or something... i just wasn't sure, but i guess they don't say anywhere how many applied. jgonzo, i kind of wish our school did it that way; i was 2 or 3 up until senior year and then suddenly it was like i entered baracuda-infested waters. funnnn stuff.</p>