<p>I'm just curious about the 'informal' knowledge that you may have about tertiary education. I know that the issue is much more complex than this simple question.</p>
<p>Which is easiest to get in for mediocre students? Which tend to attract the best students? And which tend to attract the most students? I'm noticing that there are few people intent on going to graduate school in the sciences.</p>
<p>That's a very hard question to answer well. The fact is, top ranked programs in all fields have low admissions rates. It's not really like one is more competitive than the other.</p>
<p>However, to be fair, the LSAT and MCAT are much harder than the GRE (based on my experience with the GRE and looking at the material for the other two.)</p>
<p>And it's not a question of which attract the "best students," because who's smarter, a 1L at Yale law, a 1st year med student at Harvard med, or a 1st year grad student at Princeton in Physics? They attract people of different aptitudes and interests.</p>
<p>it also depends on the program. for example, the nationwide acceptance rate for clinical psychology phd programs is ~5%- the acceptance rate for the program at Yale is ~1%</p>
<p>Correct. Many of the top 10 political science programs (my field) have acceptance rates around 9-15%.</p>
<p>It's hard to generalize because all of the programs are so completely different, especially when you are talking about various grad programs. It depends on the school and the field. You could go to a school that doesn't have a great reputation overall, but they have an outstanding program in one area that is extremely difficult to get into. They are all difficult in their own ways.</p>
<p>Easiest to get into for mediocre students? How about whatever you're most passionate about? If you're a mediocre student, you don't have very good chances of doing something you're not very passionate about.</p>
<p>I'm not judging which is best for me, as I've already ruled out law and medical schools (I'm either going to grad school in the physica/social sciences or I'm going to do nothing).</p>
<p>But one question I do have, is are there statistics concerning which programs take the highest number of students? I'm noticing among my college peers that very few are planning to go to actual graduate school - more are planning on going to applied schools (to me, applied means medical, law, as opposed to physics or astronomy).</p>
<p>So you mean professional school and not graduate school?</p>
<p>Again, the acceptance rate for each of the programs will vary based on what school you choose or what specific graduate program you choose. Admissions requirements for a graduate degree in music are not the same for a graduate degree in science. (I would not expect a science student to audition, but a music student very well might need to.) Research the specific field you are studying and the schools that offer that degree. A master's or doctorate in history might be offered everywhere, but all schools don't offer say a Ph.D. in polymer science.</p>
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A master's or doctorate in history might be offered everywhere,
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<p>However, not everyplace might offer history of "place X" if that's your interest. </p>
<p>simfish,</p>
<p>Most people get to college thinking that they'll be doctors, lawyers, or hotshot MBAs. Don't worry, by the time they graduate, a lot will have seen the options available to them.</p>