Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an alum and was shocked by Penn State's ranking. If one looks at its acceptance rate and average SAT scores, it is more like a Top 50 or 60 school, not 37th. Really hard to figure. Tulane, for example, has an average SAT 200 points higher and an acceptance rate 50 percent lower than PSU, huge, huge, differences, yet is ranked 15 slots lower. PSU is an ok school, but really not elite or an especially academic atmospher, except in some of the science grad programs. It is also in a not particularly nice town in the middle of nowhere.

Tulane alum here. Tulane is consistently ranked well below what it "deserves," probably because it is in the deep South.

Nice try.

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps I misread the original post (doubled checked though..) but a "2nd tier student" going to Williams? Absent a series "hook"....don't think that's happening....

Maybe we need a new tier system

super elite (top 0.5%)
1st tier (top 10%)
2nd tier (top 25%)
everyone else

Anonymous wrote:I am an alum and was shocked by Penn State's ranking. If one looks at its acceptance rate and average SAT scores, it is more like a Top 50 or 60 school, not 37th. Really hard to figure. Tulane, for example, has an average SAT 200 points higher and an acceptance rate 50 percent lower than PSU, huge, huge, differences, yet is ranked 15 slots lower. PSU is an ok school, but really not elite or an especially academic atmospher, except in some of the science grad programs. It is also in a not particularly nice town in the middle of nowhere.

Tulane alum here. Tulane is consistently ranked well below what it "deserves," probably because it is in the deep South.

Anonymous wrote:I am an alum and was shocked by Penn State's ranking. If one looks at its acceptance rate and average SAT scores, it is more like a Top 50 or 60 school, not 37th. Really hard to figure. Tulane, for example, has an average SAT 200 points higher and an acceptance rate 50 percent lower than PSU, huge, huge, differences, yet is ranked 15 slots lower. PSU is an ok school, but really not elite or an especially academic atmospher, except in some of the science grad programs. It is also in a not particularly nice town in the middle of nowhere.

A refreshing take.

Perhaps I misread the original post (doubled checked though..) but a "2nd tier student" going to Williams? Absent a series "hook"....don't think that's happening....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Penn State (ranked in the 30s).

Ick.

I wonder how they'll rank in USNWR this year after their (ridiculous IMO) nine spot gain last year.

The school seems like a cult of sorts.

Anonymous wrote:Princeton, harvard and yale because an idiot would pay that much

Well, they are no University of Maryland, I'll grant you that much.

Princeton, harvard and yale because an idiot would pay that much

I am an alum and was shocked by Penn State's ranking. If one looks at its acceptance rate and average SAT scores, it is more like a Top 50 or 60 school, not 37th. Really hard to figure. Tulane, for example, has an average SAT 200 points higher and an acceptance rate 50 percent lower than PSU, huge, huge, differences, yet is ranked 15 slots lower. PSU is an ok school, but really not elite or an especially academic atmospher, except in some of the science grad programs. It is also in a not particularly nice town in the middle of nowhere.

Anonymous wrote:Penn State (ranked in the 30s).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA, UNC, Michigan, Williams, Notre Dame, Northwestern

The schools that the OP listed are not the top 5 - 10%. They're more like the top .5%. These schools are still very very much part of top tier by the definition that the OP gave (top 5 - 10%).

My DC was top 5% of his graduating class (at a top public school) and PSAT/SAT scores. He attends one of these. Was WL/denied at 2 of them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So assuming top 5/top 10 percenters are getting accepted at the Ivy League, MIT, Stanford and the like. Which prestigious colleges have you observed the "second tier" students enrolling?

I think it's the top 1% at Ivy's and then the next top 10% at the schools listed here.

The lower end of the traditional ivies (Cornell, Brown) are better grouped with the top end of the Southern Ivies (Vandy, Emory) and Duke is comparable to the mid-tier Ivies ((Dartmouth, Penn) - so it's difficult to generalize as to Ivies.

Also, it seems to me that Stanford belongs ahead on any Ivy League school, but reasonable people might disagree.

This is pretty outdated. Brown with an acceptance rate of 8-9% is now harder to get into than U Penn or Dartmouth (not that I have any connection to Brown, but that's a fact).

Also, it's pretty subjective. I'm wondering what criteria you're using for ranking schools. You rank Emory the same as Cornell and Brown (or Dartmouth, or whoever's at the bottom of the Ivy heap these days)? That's not based on acceptance rates, research output, or any criteria I can think of. Vandy and Cornell might have similar acceptance rates, but in terms of research output Cornell wins hands down. Same with your ranking of Stanford ahead of any Ivy school . Both Emory and Stanford are great schools - but your own personal ranking seems pretty subjective!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So assuming top 5/top 10 percenters are getting accepted at the Ivy League, MIT, Stanford and the like. Which prestigious colleges have you observed the "second tier" students enrolling?

I think it's the top 1% at Ivy's and then the next top 10% at the schools listed here.

The lower end of the traditional ivies (Cornell, Brown) are better grouped with the top end of the Southern Ivies (Vandy, Emory) and Duke is comparable to the mid-tier Ivies ((Dartmouth, Penn) - so it's difficult to generalize as to Ivies.

Also, it seems to me that Stanford belongs ahead on any Ivy League school, but reasonable people might disagree.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Penn State (ranked in the 30s).

Ick.

I wonder how they'll rank in USNWR this year after their (ridiculous IMO) nine spot gain last year.

Anonymous wrote:Penn State (ranked in the 30s).

Ick.