Ranking selectivity

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm trying to narrow down my list of colleges, but I can't tell which of these schools are easiest to get into. My strong areas are standardized tests and classes/grades/rank, and I have pretty good extra-curriculars are awards.</p>

<p>Can anyone compare the following colleges in terms of which ones are easiest to get into? I already have 2-3 reaches (extremely selective), and I need to narrow down some others from the following list to make sure they aren't all impossible to get into.</p>

<ul>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Rensselaer</li>
<li>Pomona</li>
<li>University of Southern California</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Oberlin</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon</li>
<li>Vanderbilt</li>
</ul>

2

<p>USNews Selectivity (not Quality) Rankings</p>

<h1>1 is most selective</h1>

<p>Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges are ranked separately.</p>

<p>Universities:
8. Duke
21. University of Southern California
24. Johns Hopkins
27. Vanderbilt
28. Carnegie Mellon
51. Rensselaer</p>

<p>Liberal Arts Colleges:
3. Pomona
17. Oberlin</p>

3

<p>you ought to buy U.S. News & World Report...but since i have nothing better to do...</p>

<p>From easiest to get into to hardest:</p>

<p>*Rensselaer
*Vanderbilt
*CMU
*Oberlin
*USC
*Johns Hopkins
*Duke
*Pomona</p>

<p>And I'd just like to comment on Rensselaer...80% acceptance rate?? If only Stanford were so forgiving...</p>

4

<p>actually, mercury, the numbers are not necessarily the acceptance rate...if you look at the percentages in the 4th column from the right, that's much more accurate.</p>

5

<p>I would put oberlin above USC and JH</p>

6

<p>The selectivity ranking adjusts for self-selective admissions pools, whereas the acceptance rate does not. That's why I listed it in terms of selectivity, not acceptance...</p>

7

<p>Ranked in order of selectivity:
1. Duke
2. Vanderbilt
3. University of Southern California
4. Johns Hopkins
5. Carnegie Mellon
6. Pomona
7. Rensselaer
8. Oberlin</p>

8

<p>True ranking:
1. Duke
2. Pomona
3. Johns Hopkins
4. Vanderbilt
5. University of Southern California
6. Carnegie Mellon
6. Oberlin
7. Rensselaer</p>

9

<p>I have the U.S. News selectivity ratings, but I wasn't sure how the rankings for "Liberal Arts Colleges" compared with the "National Universities." If they were the same, Pomona would be harder to get into than Harvard - is that true?</p>

<p>I was also confused about USC. A lot of general comments I've read about it make it sounds like it's not very selective, but these ratings show otherwise (I would have thought JHU and CMU would be more selective).</p>

10

<p>1.Duke
2.Pomona
3.Johns Hopkins
4.Vanderbilt
5.Carnegie Mellon
6.Oberlin
7.Rensselaer
8.USC</p>

11

<p>"I was also confused about USC. A lot of general comments I've read about it make it sounds like it's not very selective, but these ratings show otherwise (I would have thought JHU and CMU would be more selective)."</p>

<p>USC is def. not as selective as JHU or CMU. and Pomona is not as selective as Harvard, but it is still very very selective. (accepted pool average of SAT 1490, and enrolled average of 1450)
usne obviously doesnt like LACs.</p>

12

<p>Don't forget, selectivity is onlyone measure. There are people who don't even apply to certain schools (bcs they are less well known, for example; or because they are known for a specific department) so their selectivity may be skewed by this.</p>

<p>I think that ranking from hardest to easiest would be:</p>

<p>Pomona
Duke
USC
Hopkins
Oberlin
Carnegie Mellon
Vanderbilt
Rensselaer</p>

<p>I may have Oberlin, CM & Vandy somewhat out of order.</p>