<p>Without knowing the program(s) to which a student is applying – colleges of arts & sciences, business, engineering, film, arts, etc. vary widely in selectivity – ordering these by selectivity is at best only mildly informed speculation. </p>
<p>Many CCers have a vague notion of a strictly organized ladder of selectivity, where you are almost guaranteed admission at the less selective schools if you can get into the more difficult ones. That is not necessarily the case, however, especially with the most selective colleges with increasingly small admit rates. It is not surprising in the least to see a student rejected by Cornell get into Harvard or a student get into Brown but not Vanderbilt. </p>
<p>Most of these schools are very selective, admitting about 20-33% of their applicants (OOS rate, for publics) and having average admitted SAT scores in the 2050-2150 range. While this is a step or two down in selectivity from the Ivies and other highly selective top private colleges, getting into any of these is not a walk in the park.
Exactly. To pick two examples, let’s look at USC and Berkeley. </p>
<p>USC admitted 20% of its applicants in 2013 with an average admitted GPA of 3.82 and average admitted test ranges of 2030 – 2250 and 30-34. </p>
<p>That same year, Berkeley admitted 20% of its OOS applicants. The average GPA and test scores of OOS admits were 3.92, 2171, and 33. </p>
<p>Berkeley is probably ever so slightly more selective than USC for OOS students – mostly only because it has a slightly higher average admitted GPA – but any difference is virtually negligible. </p>
<p>Some of these are somewhat less selective, admittedly. BC admits 32% of applicants with an average admitted SAT of 2032, making it numerically less selective than Berkeley OOS or USC. Nevertheless, I would not be surprised to see someone get into Berkeley or USC but get waitlisted or rejected by Boston College. </p>
<p>
The assertion is wrong, and even a few seconds of googling would’ve prevented her erroneous post. As just one counterexample, UVA admitted 42.2% of in-state applicants and 24.6% of OOS applicants in 2013. </p>
<p>Moreover, admit rates devoid of context do not provide much information. Again using Berkeley as an example, OOS applicants have only a slightly higher admit rate (20%) than in-staters (19%) – although they have higher GPAs (3.72 vs. 3.61) and SAT scores (2018 vs. 1837) on average. </p>