Anonymous wrote:At some point, we will realize the emperor has no clothes. The Ivies are so selective because they are so selective, not for any valid pedagogical reason. It's all perception and a few schools, and a huge testing and prep industry, have been cashing in on it.

+1

Anonymous wrote:The legacy figures should be posted along side the admit numbers.

The hooked figures should be..not just legacy....i.e. athlete, URM, legacy, development case, etc.

as well as the racial and socioeconomic breakdown of applicant vs. admit.

Schools have this data internally but they will never release their crosstabs unless forced by the government.

Anonymous wrote:There are so many good schools out there. So what if it is rated #40 or #140. We are creating our own "caste" system by snubbing schools we feel are not rated in the top 20 or so. Just because your dc does not get into an ivy doesn't mean their life will be less than.

people dont create a caste system.

employers do.

Compare OCI between HYP or Wharton vs. even Vanderbilt or Emory.

or for law schools, let me know if W&C or another top firm in DC recruits incoming associates from 40th-140th ranked schools.

If employers didn't create the system, people wouldn't give a fuck for the most part IMO.

Anonymous wrote:The legacy figures should be posted along side the admit numbers.

Also useful to have would be:
- percent of the class that is athletic recruits. I hear it's something like 30% at Amherst, but that could be wrong.
- percent of early decision applicants who are admitted

All of these contribute to lowering the admissions rate for regular decision below the posted admit rate. I think the Common Dataset might have some of this, but I don't have time to dig it out now.

The funny one to me is Brown. Brown used to be the place where you went if you couldn't get into any of the other Ivies. According to the Price of Admission, they launched a campaign to attract more arty kids, like JFK Jr and Hollywood kids. Now Brown's admit rate is 8.6%, lower than several other Ivies.

Columbia has had a lower admit rate than Princeton for a few years now. At DC's school, kids were turned off by the Princeton eating clubs, although obviously that's not the whole story of Princeton. There has to be something in the relative appeal of NYC over central NJ, too.

Anyway, a good education is available at many, many schools besides these eight.

Anonymous wrote:The legacy figures should be posted along side the admit numbers.

DC is a legacy, has a 2350 SAT and a 3.96 UW GPA, and they were very worried about admission. Admission to any of the top 20 schools is so incredibly competitive that no one can assume that they will get in to any of them. For all we know, being a legacy at one school may hurt you at another.

The legacy figures should be posted along side the admit numbers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous



The admit rate this year for Duke was 9%, down from the previous year of 10%.

The basketball team did not do well this year. It will be up a few points up next year, maybe 16-18%.

Lol, well I still am pretty sure that it will be harder to get into Duke than, say, University of Dayton!

Anonymous wrote:It would be one thing if it was a fair and honest application process. There is a large and heavy hand on the scale.

What is the heavy hand?

They should just do a minimum IQ, gpa, etc and do a random drawing from the qualified pool of applicants.

It would be one thing if it was a fair and honest application process. There is a large and heavy hand on the scale.

Anonymous



The admit rate this year for Duke was 9%, down from the previous year of 10%.

The basketball team did not do well this year. It will be up a few points up next year, maybe 16-18%.

There are so many good schools out there. So what if it is rated #40 or #140. We are creating our own "caste" system by snubbing schools we feel are not rated in the top 20 or so. Just because your dc does not get into an ivy doesn't mean their life will be less than.

Anonymous wrote:Do you ever wonder if the Ivies collude on admissions? If a 2 qualified students apply to Yale and Penn, wouldn't it make sense for Yale and Penn to agree that one of them will accept one of them and one the other? That could improve yield for both schools.

Maybe in the future, admission to the Ivy League will be more like residency match, where you list your preferences and the schools sort the candidates.

I hope they never do such a thing. Agreeing to allocate students without involving the student? Probably also an antitrust violation, just like the Overlap Group was as to financial aid. And it might be a violation of Buckley Amendment as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am staying positive for DC who wants to apply to some of these schools.

You should. DS just got into a couple of Ivies -- some kids have to be admitted. My advice is just have DD pick out a couple of safety schools she'd be happy with too. We did that and it was comforting to know there was a backup plan. Good luck to your daughter!

Thank you, and congratulations to your son. DC will definitely choose both reaches at least one safety when applying.