Well, I have no idea what the answer to this question is, but spelling "Ivy" in all caps like it's an acronym is highly correlated with not getting into one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the Ag School is a NY state school, which means it is easier to get in as a NY resident but not from out-of-state. None of the Ivies is at all easy to get into, and I think this question is ridiculous on lots of levels.

If you get into the ag school, are you stuck studying agriculture related subjects? lol. Or can you switch to another school and major in something else? Just curious.

Who would be stupid enough to lie about a major just to get into a school?

Umm, someone who is interested in Cornell?

Anonymous wrote:Cornell shouldn't even be called an Ivy.

Happy Holiday cheerful! You wanna call the shots on a few other athletic conferences ?

Cornell shouldn't even be called an Ivy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And the Ag School is a NY state school, which means it is easier to get in as a NY resident but not from out-of-state. None of the Ivies is at all easy to get into, and I think this question is ridiculous on lots of levels.

If you get into the ag school, are you stuck studying agriculture related subjects? lol. Or can you switch to another school and major in something else? Just curious.

Who would be stupid enough to lie about a major just to get into a school?

Cornell is the easiest. Then Penn.

My son was admitted to Harvard, Princeton, and Brown. He was not accepted to Yale. He did not apply to Cornell because he felt so many students at Cornell are always so worried about their perception and ranking. He matriculated to Brown because he was accepted to the PLME program. Brown is very selective but it US News ranking is not that high because its graduate school program is small (effecting the number of professors they have by field). But Brown students don't care; they are serious students who love their school. I respect my son because he is not a prestige whore for the HYP brand. He went for the best fit and every day he is so thankful he based his decision on his own feelings.

Anonymous wrote:But Brown doesn't have as many applicants, so again, it's hard to compare which is harder to get into. It is also a pointless exercise.

Strictly going by the numbers, Brown's acceptance rate is 9%. So it's easier to get into than HYP but harder than Cornell and Dartmouth.

It may be easier, however, for a kid with slightly less than perfect grades and slightly lower SATs to get into Brown. It seems like Brown might have a different applicant pool from, say, HYP. Although at the end of the day, 9% is still 9%.

They are SO different it's hard to believe that all of them would appeal to one kid.

I agree! I'm thinking about the difference in environment between Dartmouth and Brown...it's huge. I think Cornell is generally regarded as the easiest ivy to get into partially due to its large size, and partially because of it's location. But it really depends on what you want to study.

As far as Brown being the ivy that people without a hope of getting into another ivy could get into...I don't think so--it's got a 9% acceptance rate! That's lower than Dartmouth, Penn, and Cornell. They may look at students a bit more holistically, which may account for slightly lower SAT scores, but it is still extremely competitive. I think on average it is certainly harder to get into than Cornell, judging from friends of mine who applied there (recently...in the mid 2000s). There is also a degree of randomness; every now and then you'll get the odd student who got into Columbia but not Brown.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown's SAT scores are lower than Cornell

Brown is one of the hardest b/c smaller.

Size doesn't matter. Brown is within reach of some students who have no hope of any other Ivy.

Yale

None of them are easy to get into OP. I agree it's ridiculous.

But Brown doesn't have as many applicants, so again, it's hard to compare which is harder to get into. It is also a pointless exercise.

Anonymous wrote:Brown's SAT scores are lower than Cornell

Brown is one of the hardest b/c smaller.

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Anonymous wrote:I don't agree that Cornell is "hands down the least selective Ivy." It's a ridiculous overstatement and oversimplification of a complicated process. You can't compare it to the others. It has 3 NY-state schools, which changes the landscape dramatically. The Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering are no less selective than the other Ivies.

You protest too much. Cornell regularly admits kids who get turned down by other Ivies, and that's just the way it is. A "lesser Ivy" is still better than 99% of the schools out there.

I agree that Cornell is a great school that is less selective than other schools in its athletic conference. Beyond that, however, the Ivy or bust mentality implicit in your statement is just another example of the obsession with Ivies that ends up channeling many kids into schools that aren't the best choice for them. Is Cornell "better than" the following schools: Stanford, MIT, CalTech, Chicago, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Michigan, UVA . . .? The answer is complicated and will be different for every student.

Agree. I posted above that my DC isn't applying to Cornell because she didn't like it. But the lure of an Ivy was a tough one and we had to convince her that if she didn't like it she shouldn't apply, regardless of its sports league. Interestingly DC didn't really like several of the Ivies we visited (setting aside the admission challenge). So just because they are prestigious does not mean they are a good fit. I also find it interesting that some kids apply to all or most of them. They are SO different it's hard to believe that all of them would appeal to one kid.