are Dartmouth and Brown easier than WASP schools?

[Anonymous]

^ that is why conventional wisdom is not to waste ED/SCEA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:going back to the question, look at your naviance

Brown and Swat love our HS. As long as you have a 3.85, you're good. ED is better at Brown.

Dartmouth takes zero kids unless an athletic recruit We've had multiple get into HYPSM and rejected from Dartmouth over the last 5 years. I think they favor high schools over others more than any other college (except for many Chicago).

Williams takes just the top. ED not a help

Pomona took no one, then they took a couple, now they take plenty. According to college counselor at the high school: they didnt know us or how to read our transcript, and now they do.

Amherst not too hard, but they like a story

In our ENTIRE county last year, public schools only got 1 kid in at Brown, 1 Dartmouth, 0 Princeton, 4 Harvard (athletes), 1 Yale, 2 Penn, 7 Cornell, 3 MIT, 2 Duke, 1 Caltech, 3 Hopkins, 4 Chicago, 2 NW, 1 Stanford.

Think about that, close to 2,000 Seniors.

It's why the arguments on this Board are so insane. Your kid is not getting in, so putting down these schools and the kids that do is completely ludicrous.

💯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:going back to the question, look at your naviance

Brown and Swat love our HS. As long as you have a 3.85, you're good. ED is better at Brown.

Dartmouth takes zero kids unless an athletic recruit We've had multiple get into HYPSM and rejected from Dartmouth over the last 5 years. I think they favor high schools over others more than any other college (except for many Chicago).

Williams takes just the top. ED not a help

Pomona took no one, then they took a couple, now they take plenty. According to college counselor at the high school: they didnt know us or how to read our transcript, and now they do.

Amherst not too hard, but they like a story

In our ENTIRE county last year, public schools only got 1 kid in at Brown, 1 Dartmouth, 0 Princeton, 4 Harvard (athletes), 1 Yale, 2 Penn, 7 Cornell, 3 MIT, 2 Duke, 1 Caltech, 3 Hopkins, 4 Chicago, 2 NW, 1 Stanford.

Think about that, close to 2,000 Seniors.

It's why the arguments on this Board are so insane. Your kid is not getting in, so putting down these schools and the kids that do is completely ludicrous.

I'm the PP and this is why it depends on high school. Which is what I said. Our high school has a graduating class of under 200 and we had kids admitted to every single one of those schools (minus Dartmouth). Private, feeder obv. But I dont know where OP's kid is

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All those celebrities’ kids aren’t going to Brown to get some bigtime academic rigor. Heck, even JFK Jr. managed to graduate.

Omg. 1983. You are ridiculous. Should we name all of the non-illustrious grads over other Ivies and T10s25s, including some destroying our way of life?

You realize celebrity kids are packed at Vandy, Duke, Stanford, USC, and the 7 other Ivies, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:going back to the question, look at your naviance

Brown and Swat love our HS. As long as you have a 3.85, you're good. ED is better at Brown.

Dartmouth takes zero kids unless an athletic recruit We've had multiple get into HYPSM and rejected from Dartmouth over the last 5 years. I think they favor high schools over others more than any other college (except for many Chicago).

Williams takes just the top. ED not a help

Pomona took no one, then they took a couple, now they take plenty. According to college counselor at the high school: they didnt know us or how to read our transcript, and now they do.

Amherst not too hard, but they like a story

In our ENTIRE county last year, public schools only got 1 kid in at Brown, 1 Dartmouth, 0 Princeton, 4 Harvard (athletes), 1 Yale, 2 Penn, 7 Cornell, 3 MIT, 2 Duke, 1 Caltech, 3 Hopkins, 4 Chicago, 2 NW, 1 Stanford.

Think about that, close to 2,000 Seniors.

It's why the arguments on this Board are so insane. Your kid is not getting in, so putting down these schools and the kids that do is completely ludicrous.

I'm the PP and this is why it depends on high school. Which is what I said. Our high school has a graduating class of under 200 and we had kids admitted to every single one of those schools (minus Dartmouth). Private, feeder obv. But I dont know where OP's kid is

Agree. But as the other op noted, you can see why there are moms in hearing tearing down schools and kids that their kids don’t stand a chance at given the numbers that poster showed.

[Anonymous]

^ here

[Anonymous]

Ha- to that wacko: have your little genius apply somewhere else then. lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:going back to the question, look at your naviance

Brown and Swat love our HS. As long as you have a 3.85, you're good. ED is better at Brown.

Dartmouth takes zero kids unless an athletic recruit We've had multiple get into HYPSM and rejected from Dartmouth over the last 5 years. I think they favor high schools over others more than any other college (except for many Chicago).

Williams takes just the top. ED not a help

Pomona took no one, then they took a couple, now they take plenty. According to college counselor at the high school: they didnt know us or how to read our transcript, and now they do.

Amherst not too hard, but they like a story

In our ENTIRE county last year, public schools only got 1 kid in at Brown, 1 Dartmouth, 0 Princeton, 4 Harvard (athletes), 1 Yale, 2 Penn, 7 Cornell, 3 MIT, 2 Duke, 1 Caltech, 3 Hopkins, 4 Chicago, 2 NW, 1 Stanford.

Think about that, close to 2,000 Seniors.

It's why the arguments on this Board are so insane. Your kid is not getting in, so putting down these schools and the kids that do is completely ludicrous.

💯

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All those celebrities’ kids aren’t going to Brown to get some bigtime academic rigor. Heck, even JFK Jr. managed to graduate.

Omg. 1983. You are ridiculous. Should we name all of the non-illustrious grads over other Ivies and T10s25s, including some destroying our way of life?

You realize celebrity kids are packed at Vandy, Duke, Stanford, USC, and the 7 other Ivies, right?

We are all literally on this site to see the latest on an everchanging landscape, so it always amuses me when people point to decades old stereotypes over direct knowledge from current students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:going back to the question, look at your naviance

Brown and Swat love our HS. As long as you have a 3.85, you're good. ED is better at Brown.

Dartmouth takes zero kids unless an athletic recruit We've had multiple get into HYPSM and rejected from Dartmouth over the last 5 years. I think they favor high schools over others more than any other college (except for many Chicago).

Williams takes just the top. ED not a help

Pomona took no one, then they took a couple, now they take plenty. According to college counselor at the high school: they didnt know us or how to read our transcript, and now they do.

Amherst not too hard, but they like a story

This is really common with Pomona. They tend to make it really difficult for an individual from an unknown school to get in, and then...they let in a ton of people from the same school if they see good results. 5 students from DD's hs got into Pomona last year and 4 attended. This year we're expecting a similar number; meanwhile, three years ago, it was almost impossible getting in.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Swarthmore and those students were MISERABLE.

Brown and Amherst have some admissions overlap as do Williams and Dartmouth. Pomona probably somewhere in between. Brown and Amherst are rigorous without being competitive, which is appealing to a lot of students.

[Anonymous]

The reality are all the Ivy's ae much easier once you get there than even flagship state schools.

Less classes, less expectation, no real grading, lots of fluff classes.

Ivy students take 10 less classes than students are flagship universities add in some APs and they are taking 15 less classes

-------
Depends on the Ivy and the major. Cornell is 5 courses per semester, not 4. And Cornell Engineering is tough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality are all the Ivy's ae much easier once you get there than even flagship state schools.

Less classes, less expectation, no real grading, lots of fluff classes.

Ivy students take 10 less classes than students are flagship universities add in some APs and they are taking 15 less classes

-------
Depends on the Ivy and the major. Cornell is 5 courses per semester, not 4. And Cornell Engineering is tough.

Yes, so easy, that’s why their MCAT and LSAT scores set the bar from all those joke classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't realize "WASP schools" were still a thing in 2025.

What does that even mean? It’s an acronym.

An acronym for what please?

Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore and I’m not sure the P one.

Selective liberal arts colleges

Pomona- the most selective liberal arts college.

My kid is in the thick of applications right now. Bowdoin was slightly more selective this past year. However, Pomona and Bowdoin have the highest yield among the liberal arts colleges. I think Pomona's weather is far more appealing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Swarthmore and those students were MISERABLE.

Brown and Amherst have some admissions overlap as do Williams and Dartmouth. Pomona probably somewhere in between. Brown and Amherst are rigorous without being competitive, which is appealing to a lot of students.

You always love to bring this up. My kid there is not miserable, nor were the friends I know who went there 20-30 years ago.