What prestigious colleges are easiest to get into?
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Anonymous
I went to Michigan 15 years ago, so not so current. I'm from Michigan. Tons of my friends were from the east coast. Lots of students from Long Island and New Jersey. I had two roommates from Maryland - both from Betheseda. The school was 60% in-state back then. It was known that the out-of-staters had to have better stats for acceptance. They were very prepared and tended to do well there. Most students were going on to some form of graduate school (except maybe my engineering and B-school friends). The undergrad B-school is very competitive. The med school feeder courses are competitive - second semester calculus, org chem, and biology. Econ is competitive for those applying to B-school. I liked the school, but the competitive nature of the classes was a grind at times. The greek scene was big. Regarding the feel of the school, as they say in Michigan, we have two large state schools - Moo U and Jew U. U Mich is Jew U (Michigan State is Moo U). |
Anonymous
| Jew U? Goodness, I hope M suits my fairly conservative DD applying from a Catholic HS in Va. Maybe she'll appear unique to the admissions committee. |
Anonymous
You've got to be kidding.... |
Anonymous
| Whatever PP said Brown is completely crazy. admission rate last year 9.6%, lower than Cal Tech, Penn, Dartmouth, just about everywhere except HYPS and some unusual places like the service academies and Julliard. |
Anonymous
| In general, schools in bad weather/economically depressed areas will be easier to get into than schools in pleasant climates that are economically vibrant. Look at the trends for Duke and Michigan as an example. |
Anonymous
I see that for Penn State. But what's the "trend" for Michigan? |
Anonymous
Not OP but Michigan was a top school at one point, but it's dropped out of the top 25. Duke has moved into the top 10, above Stanford in some rankings. |
Anonymous
| Michigan is hard to get into, especially oos. It's also a hot school right now with kids from this area, which makes it even tougher. |
Anonymous
University of Wisconsin Madison has a beautiful campus with great academics and a vibrant social scene and is not as expensive as many schools. It is a better deal than many colleges. |
Anonymous
Penn State (#37) and Michigan (#28) are comparable Top 40 schools. The others are fine schools, but in a different class. |
Anonymous
| Penn State is really an enigma in the USNW ratings. Its average SATs are 250 points lower than Michigan, for example, and it has over a 50% acceptance rate. And its statistics are lower than many schools ranked well behind. It is also in a very remote, not particularly nice area. It seems to do very well on the some of the measures not related to selectivity, however. |
Anonymous
UM-W is ranked #41. Hardly "a different class" from #37 and #28. In fact, PSU was ranked #46 last year and years before that. I have nothing for/against PSU (the S $60M fine + $60M settlements so far +$60M legal fees so far aside) but its #37 rank (and sudden 9 spot jump this year) is indefensible. |
Anonymous
Which should pretty much put to rest the notion that schools bump their ratings by encouraging applications to improve selectivity. The USNWS ratings are more nuanced than some think. |
Anonymous
As a PP noted, Wisconsin is not far from the top 40 and is probably closer to the Michigan PSU tier than the other schools |
Anonymous
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