What prestigious colleges are easiest to get into?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of the iviest, the "easiest" to get into are Cornell and Penn, which have recently tend to have acceptance around 12 or 13%. Still not easy to get into, but comparatively easier. I imagine part of it is the relatively large size of these schools. Penn is a little harder than Cornell.

The next tier would be Brown, Columbia, and Dartmouth. These tend to hover around 10%. I think these are all comparatively hard to get into, although in recent years Columbia has been a little harder, possibly because it's cool to live in New York (the past few years it has been ~7%). I don't get all this Brown bashing...it has an open curriculum, so I think it attracts more "artsy" types than the other schools (although there is still plenty of prep...just way less than Dartmouth), but it is still really difficult to get into.

The hardest ivies to get into are obviously Harvard, Yale, and Princeton which have acceptance rates that tend to hover around 5%.

Duke isn't an ivy, although it is a very good, very competitive school. It also is pretty preppy.

Actually Columbia's admit rate is lower than Princeton now.

And according to USNWR Columbia has the 8th lowest admit rate of all colleges in the country. So not what I would call easy to get into! I'm sure they all play some games - I know my DS, who would be a high reach for Columbia, has been bombarded with email and mail from them so they are obviously trying to gin up applications to reject. In fact he's gotten letters/brochures/books from all the Ivies except Princeton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I think the trick to Columbia is do well at another school and then transfer in.

Columbia's transfer aceptance rate is less than 10%, not a whole lot better than the overall acceptance rate: http://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/ask/faq/topic/393

Columbia does have some formal partnerships with schools like Fordham and Occidental, where you can transfer in after a few years. I don't know what percent of applicants they take, though.

The ED rate at Columbia is a lot higher - something like 20%.

Fordham partnership with Columbia applies only to engineering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown. They'll let anyone in. No joke.

You've got to be kidding....

She is saying that Brown will let anyone in, because her DC's rival got into it. Not cool, fat-butt mom. I know who you are.

[Anonymous]

My super smart kid wants to go to UMD or Towson.

DC told me that the long term goal is medical school, and that UMD would be the best fit and allow semi-normal life for at least 4 years.

Where did I go wrong?

[Anonymous]

A good idea is to do well at a lesser UC school and then transfer to UCLA or Berkley.

[Anonymous]

Attend a community college and transfer to UVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NYU
Penn State
the all women's schools (e.g., Mt Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr)
Tulane
Syracuse

Puh-leeze!
Tulane is a total party school, crap academics. Syracuse is famous only for the fact that its lake caught fire.
Penn state? Come on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OF the Ivies, Cornell by far

Also, I think you can game admissions slightly by applying to the state affiliated schools (agriculture, industrial relations, ecology, and veterinarian science) that have higher admissions rates. Before you laugh, you should know that the same classes may be taught under different schools. For example, one of my daughter's friends is a pre-med studying agro-biology, and is in the same classes as the liberal arts bio kids, for half the tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Attend a community college and transfer to UVA

UVA had guaranteed admissions with a sufficiently high community college GPA (something like a 3.9). This is certain a viable path for a kid who is not a strong test taker but gets good grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Attend a community college and transfer to UVA

UVA had guaranteed admissions with a sufficiently high community college GPA (something like a 3.9). This is certain a viable path for a kid who is not a strong test taker but gets good grades.

I know several kids with 2.9 and below from nova cc who got in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OF the Ivies, Cornell by far

Brown?

Brown is one of the hardest Ivy b/c so small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Attend a community college and transfer to UVA

UVA had guaranteed admissions with a sufficiently high community college GPA (something like a 3.9). This is certain a viable path for a kid who is not a strong test taker but gets good grades.

PP here: Sorry - I wrong. The minimum GPA for guaranteed admissions to UVa from NoVa C.C. is 3.4. The same GPA is required for VaTech and to apply for William and Mary (but 3.6 at graduation is required for William and Mary).

http://www.nvcc.edu/current-students/transfer/Search/GAAAdmission.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NYU
Penn State
the all women's schools (e.g., Mt Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr)
Tulane
Syracuse

Puh-leeze!
Tulane is a total party school, crap academics. Syracuse is famous only for the fact that its lake caught fire.
Penn state? Come on.

Do you have family at Tulane? That's not my impression. Not saying it's an IVY, but it's not as you described.

[Anonymous]

Haven't read the whole thread so it may have been said already - but it's easier to get into a school if it is way across the country from where you live. Don't know how much it plays at highly prestigious schools but geographical affirmative action is definitely a factor at many other schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NYU
Penn State
the all women's schools (e.g., Mt Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr)
Tulane
Syracuse

Puh-leeze!
Tulane is a total party school, crap academics. Syracuse is famous only for the fact that its lake caught fire.
Penn state? Come on.

Not quibbling with your assertion that Syracuse is not a prestigious school but the lake caught fire? Granted I left Syracuse in the 90s but I googled that and couldn't find anything about it. You're sure you're not thinking about the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland (which I left in the 80s)? Although granted Onondaga Lake was pretty polluted when I was there.

Oh and I should add that there are some schools in Syracuse that are pretty prestigious - the Newhouse School (media) and Maxwell (for grad work) but the plain old College of Arts and Sciences, no.