The ranking criteria used by PR is as follows:
Admissions Selectivity Rating
Academic Rating
Admissions Selectivity Rating
This rating measures how competitive admissions are at the school. This rating is determined by several institutionally-reported factors, including: the class rank, average standardized test scores, and average high school GPA of entering freshmen; the percentage of students who hail from out-of-state; and the percentage of applicants accepted. By incorporating all these factors, our Admissions Selectivity Rating adjusts for “self-selecting” applicant pools. University of Chicago, for example, has a very high rating, even though it admits a surprisingly large proportion of its applicants. Chicago’s applicant pool is self-selecting; that is, nearly all the school’s applicants are exceptional students. This rating is given on a scale of 60-99. Please note that if a school has an Admissions Selectivity Rating of 60*, it means that the school did not report to us all of the statistics that go into the rating by our deadline.
<p>Maybe since it's the most famous school in the world, there are many people who apply who stand no chance, thus making the acceptance rate very low. But perhaps for students of academic excellence, i.e. those who actually stand a chance, it's easier to get into Harvard than M.I.T or CalTech.</p>
<p>The PR top 20 this year are:
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
2 Princeton University<br>
3 California Institute of Technology<br>
4 Yale University<br>
5 Harvard College<br>
6 University of Pennsylvania<br>
7 Stanford University<br>
8 Swarthmore College<br>
9 Duke University<br>
10 Columbia University - Columbia College<br>
11 Georgetown University<br>
12 Brown University<br>
13 Pomona College<br>
14 Amherst College<br>
15 Dartmouth College<br>
16 University of California-Berkeley<br>
17 Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering<br>
18 Harvey Mudd College<br>
19 Emory University<br>
20 University of Virginia</p>
<p>My gosh. You ppl, stop this! This is just going to turn into another thread where everyone is gonna get all defensive about certain colleges they like...why does it matter which college is the hardest to get into in the first place?</p>
<p>It obviously matters otherwise PR wouldn't be selling so many of its "Best 357 Colleges" book with all its rankings. But people must remember that because the universe of colleges is so great, the difference btween say #10 and #18 may be incredibly slight, perhaps even close to a tie. It is the difference between #10 and #67 that is noticeable.</p>
<p>I don't quite buy PR's rankings....For example, Berkeley is ranked #16. Although they have a relatively low acceptance rate (about 24-26%) and relatively high SAT scores, they are not harder then some of the schools ranked below Berkeley and defninitely not harder then some of the schools omitted from that list. </p>
<p>The only possible way I can imagine Berkeley being ranked #16 is if it's the 16th hardest school to get into IF you are an OUT-OF-STATER.</p>
<p>Well....US News Weeks "thinks" that Yale is the most selective college; it is more selective then MIT & Princeton. (0_o)</p>
<p>According to USNWR...</p>
<p>Berkeley has an acceptance rate of 24% and 25-75 SATS of 1190-440 making it the ---->28TH <---- most selective college. </p>
<p>If you closely scrutinize PRs list you will find that highly selective schools like Rice, which has an acceptance rate of 24% and 25-75 SATS of 1330-1530, Williams (18% acceptance rate w/ SATS of 1320-1520), Northwestern (33% acceptance rate w/ SATS of 1310-1480), John Hopkins, U of Chicago, and Washington in St. Louis among others are omitted. Why?</p>
<p>While Berkeley and Uva are both very selective, it would be foolish to think that they are among the "top 20" most selective college in the US when so many other highly selective colleges are left out of that list PR publishes.</p>
<p>At some schools the students are a very self-selected group (like U Chicago), so the acceptance rate is higher. It does not mean that they are easier to get into.</p>
<p>For god's sake, people, read the criteria. Admission percentages are quite far from being the only factor considered; it takes things such as overall academic excellence of students, self-selectivity, etc into consideration. But, of course, if people like to post their own opinions on this topic (which is geared towards opinion anyway)...
The thread topic itself doesn't really matter, except maybe to boost the egos of people who've already been accepted to one of the listed places, but for once, it's nice to see at least something that's backed up be evidence. You might think PR people don't know what they're doing, but they know a heck of a lot more that any one of us here. :)</p>
<p>The toughest to get into are the service academies. Of the non-military schools, based on early decisions and action, MIT, CalTech, Columbia, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Swarthmore, Duke and UNC seem to be heading up the list. Also, Georgetown, Colgate, Boston College, Middlebury and Penn are increasingly difficult this year.</p>