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<p>What might be a “more benign explanation”?</p>
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<p>Out-of-touch, out-of-date administration? 
Although they have been making efforts at improvement lately, so who knows? Maybe in a few years time?</p>
<p>The middle 50% SAT score ranges are valuable for many colleges. However, please realize that the Ivy League colleges reject many people who score above their 50% range. In fact, they reject many people with near-perfect SAT scores.</p>
<p>Please don’t get obsessed with the Ivy League name. Depending upon what you want to study and what type of environment you are looking for, there are probably many other colleges where you might be happier. </p>
<p>Georgetown is usually considered one step below Ivy. They accept 20% a year, which is not as difficult as the Ivies.</p>
<p>The 20 percent acceptance rate you cite (source?) takes into account the rounds for the College, the SFS, the Business School, and the Nursing School.</p>
<p>Penn’s acceptance rate, which also takes into account the rounds for its diverse undergraduate colleges, has hovered around 16-18 percent. Likewise, Cornell’s acceptance rate has recently hit as high as ~25 percent.</p>
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14% for the Class of 2014. ;)</p>
<p>In answer to a question above, at a adm. session at Georgetown a couple months ago, they said the admit rate was 19% and then went up to 20% after they were done with the waiting list. Georgetown doesn’t have early decision, and they say the admit rate is similar among the colleges in the university.</p>
<p>I’m really surprised that Cornell had a 25% admit rate in recent years? That’s not similar to what I have read.</p>
<p>Duke-top academics, fantastic basketball, great campus, mild weather!</p>
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<p>Georgetown CAS and SFS have acceptance rates around 17-18% while the NHS and B-school would be 20-22% averaging 20%. </p>
<p>Cornell doesn’t have that high of an admit rate. I thinks its lower. Their CAS is also significantly selective since its really only the IVY LEAGUE part of Cornell.</p>
<p>Penn and Cornell are the easiest ivies to gain admission to.</p>
<p>The admit rate at Cornell College of Arts and Sciences was 15.7% this year. SAT scores are a much better index of selectivity, though. Too many irrelevant factors affect admit rate.</p>
<p>SAT+top 10% is way better. Some people do well in the SAT but might not be consistently good students. Some people dont do too well on the SAT but are stellar students</p>
<p>Regardless of Cornell CAS acceptance rate (15.7%), I think for a student in the top 1-5% academically, its not that hard to get into. Dartmouth & Brown are harder especially Dartmouth.</p>
<p>“Regardless of Cornell CAS acceptance rate (15.7%), I think for a student in the top 1-5% academically, its not that hard to get into. Dartmouth & Brown are harder especially Dartmouth.”</p>
<p>Very true. Cornell CAS is much harder to get into than UChicago though despite similar admissions numbers because Cornell focus a lot more on extracurricular. The difficulty of getting into Dartmouth, Brown, and Columbia (combining CC and SEAS) are about the same.</p>
<p>If you want easy and Ivy, forget it.</p>
<p>Penn is hard unless you are a legacy.</p>
<p>Selectivity at Dartmouth and Cornell CAS is nearly the same based on SAT. I think Dartmouth’s SATs are about 20 points higher.</p>
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<p>An anomaly. :)</p>
<p>Penn:</p>
<p>2014: 14.22
2013: 17.11
2012: 16.44
2011: 16.06
2010: 17.66
2009: 20.80</p>
<p>Cornell:</p>
<p>2014: 18.38
2013: 19.10
2012: 20.40
2011: 21.40
2010: 24.68
2009: 27.08</p>
<p>There. Now go measure yourselves. It keeps getting smaller and smaller!</p>
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Or a trend. :p</p>