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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some of these SLACs are just as difficult as the Ivys to get into.  Pomona has a sub 10% acceptance rate and top ranked schools like Amherst are getting close with record applications this year.

https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/C%2520Admission_1.pdf

The middle 50% SAT range for ENROLLED students at Amherst is higher than many of the Ivys:  720-770 Verbal and 710-790 Math.  The top 25% of enrolled Amherst students have SATs higher than 1560/1600.

And the endowments of the top SLACs are higher on a per student basis than many Ivys (but behind Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Stanford): 
https://www.collegeraptor.com/college-rankings/details/EndowmentPerStudent[/quote]

Amherst is very sneaky about testing. They only report the highest submitted between the ACT and SAT by each student (you'll see the total for scores submitted adds up to exactly 100%).  The other Ivies and SLACs report every test score when students report both instead of cherry-picking the highest, bringing their numbers down. And then some universities only report the highest single setting score, instead of a superscore. Amherst has done this starting from last year to do well on US News's "selectivity" benchmark. I'd be careful about making a statement that their testing is inherently higher- it probably isn't. The fact that only 83% ranked in the top 10%, while every other Ivy besides Cornell is at 92%+, is telling. [/quote]

How do you know this is true?  Amherst admissions hasn't made any statements to this effect.  I'm a Williams grad and there have been musings on a Williams alumni board that because Amherst's scores are higher than Williams, they MUST be doing something funny.  On the flip side, Williams reports 91% in the top 10% but some say Williams and some Ivies include kids who come from high schools that don't rank at all (such as in Fairfax County) in the top 10% just based on their transcripts while Amherst does not include these unranked kids.  So unless there is a uniform way for colleges to complete their common data sets it is difficult to compare peer schools at the granular level.  What is clear is that for all these highly selective schools including SLACs that the bar has been raised significantly over the last 10 years as far as the quality of kids they are accepting at least based on test scores, GPA and # of APs taken.[/quote]

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