<p>He was also waitlisted at Columbia. All were regular decision. Princeton is much more selective than Penn or Columbia...?</p>
<p>Especially in the cases of top-tier universities like Princeton, Penn, Columbia, etc., admission isn’t given based on a general sense of selectivity. Each university is trying to shape a diverse, well-rounded freshman class. In the case of your friend, it seems his/her interests/demographic fit into Princeton’s freshman class, but not those of the other institutions. Under different circumstances (applicants having different demographics/popular interests, for example), the result could have been altered.</p>
<p>In any case, congratulations to your friend! I’m sure he/she’ll have a wonderful four years at Princeton!</p>
<p>It’s random, schools look for different things, though the general selectivity is pretty much the same except for HYP being a notch more selective than the other Ivies since they get the best of the best applicants. I knew someone who got rejected by Brown/UPenn/Harvard, but got into Princeton/Columbia/Cornell, and of other cases vice versa.</p>
<p>Yep. Penn was ridiculous with their admissions last year. I applied to Penn and Harvard (those were the only 2 ivies I applied to). I got waitlisted at Harvard, which I thought would have guaranteed me an acceptance at Penn, since its acceptance rate is twice as high and my Penn app was way better, but I still got waitlisted at Penn.</p>
<p>^ Out of curiosity, were you accepted off of the wait-list for either?</p>
<p>I took myself off both waitlists. I decided on Notre Dame 3 days after I got waitlisted at both. And TBH, I know it sounds ridiculous, but I am so unbelievably glad that I didn’t get in and didn’t hold my waitlist spot. Notre Dame is the absolute perfect school for me, and I can’t imagine myself anywhere else. If I had been accepted to either school, I would have caved and gone to one of them instead of following my heart and going to Notre Dame. Every single day I think how happy I am and how lucky I am to be here. So no matter what happens in your college admissions process, it’ll all turn out okay in the end :)</p>
<p>Unrelated sentimental story aside, I do know someone who was waitlisted at Penn and then rejected off the waitlist.</p>
<p>^ Notre Dame is an amazing elite school, it’s a shame I didn’t apply, considering Regis went there lol</p>
<p>^Regis was on campus this weekend! So was Condoleezza Rice, Ara Parseghian, and Rudy.</p>
<p>The valedictorian at our school applied to Harvard, Penn, Stanford, Princeton, and Notre Dame. She got into Penn and Princeton and rejected at the others. Attending Penn.</p>
<p>who would go to penn of pton lol?</p>
<p>Anyways maybe your UPENN rejected your friend due to yield protection.</p>
<p>Well, I mean, everyone has their preferences. I personally would have gone to Princeton, but she preferred the Penn curriculum according to her. She knows what she’s doing so I am not going to judge her.</p>