Anonymous
06/23/2025 10:30
Subject: Re:Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Texas
Anonymous
06/23/2025 10:14
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Tufts is one.
WF?
Tulane.
Tulane, Tufts, Chicago are all in the "ED or bust" category. Either much easier or much harder to get into than rankings indicate, depending how you apply.
Middlebury is another "ED or bust" school?
Our school seems sent kids there ED only. But I am not 100% sure, the RD accepted kids may have better option and did not matriculate there.
Yeah, Midd takes about 70% of class ED. Upped the ED percentage dramatically a couple years ago because of their ongoing budget (and related, over-enrollment) issues — the more of a class you admit ED, the more the class is full-pay, to the uninitiated.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:53
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:As for the talk about Vanderbilt, it’s tough admit shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s a simple combination of great academics, great social scene, great city, and increasingly good sports. Basically, it’s has it all in a great environment. The recent slippage in the ratings is a shrug. Also, it hadn’t had the political craziness that many elite campuses in the NE have experienced.
Upthread, there was a comparison to Duke. While Duke has a great campus, academics, and basketball team, Durham is terrible and the campus is segregated from the city. Also, while old campus is very collegiate, but the rest of campus feels very corporate. Not a great vibe.
It’s astonishing that Vandy has gone from an acceptance rate of 70% 35 years ago to less than 5% now. Wow.
Vanderbilt has that hard to find combination of urban, warm weather, athletics, Greek life, and prestige. Hard to beat.
Yes, and it is not dominated by Asians and Internationals. Look at their accepted student Instagram--it is an entirely different demographic then any other top20 school.
Similar look at Notre Dame, which is (unfortunately, IMO) only 9% Asian American and 8% international. But I suppose there aren't a huge number of Catholic Asian Americans?
Almost all LACs are like Vanderbilt, less than 20% Asian (except the ones in California).
If you cannot compete with Asian, consider LACs, or Vanderbilt, or Notre Dame. :P
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:42
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:As for the talk about Vanderbilt, it’s tough admit shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s a simple combination of great academics, great social scene, great city, and increasingly good sports. Basically, it’s has it all in a great environment. The recent slippage in the ratings is a shrug. Also, it hadn’t had the political craziness that many elite campuses in the NE have experienced.
Upthread, there was a comparison to Duke. While Duke has a great campus, academics, and basketball team, Durham is terrible and the campus is segregated from the city. Also, while old campus is very collegiate, but the rest of campus feels very corporate. Not a great vibe.
It’s astonishing that Vandy has gone from an acceptance rate of 70% 35 years ago to less than 5% now. Wow.
Vanderbilt has that hard to find combination of urban, warm weather, athletics, Greek life, and prestige. Hard to beat.
Yes, and it is not dominated by Asians and Internationals. Look at their accepted student Instagram--it is an entirely different demographic then any other top20 school.
Similar look at Notre Dame, which is (unfortunately, IMO) only 9% Asian American and 8% international. But I suppose there aren't a huge number of Catholic Asian Americans?
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:35
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Tulane, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Auburn
Ummm...Georgia Tech is the number 4 ranked engineering school in the country. Top 1-5 for every engineering discipline.
Yeah...don't think Georgia Tech can be categorized as falling under the radar in rankings or difficulty getting into.
Why not? Its ranked in the 30's overall.
Not quite sure why you felt need to throw any shade here. But here are the stats. GT is very well known as difficult. Top 5 Engineering school in the country. Has always been a extremely hard get, especially out of state at 9% percent overall accept with 6% for engineering. Even overall general admissions for in-state at 30% is more difficult for instate than fellow "Public Ivy" schools like UNC (40% plus in state and UT Austin 45% plus in state) or the other in-state public school UGA with generally a 42-45% acceptance rate for instate. This is common knowledge.
Using public schools is a farce as they limit OOS students. UNC is harder tonget into than Gatech using your metric.
Not arguing here as both tough gets. GT limits it greatly as well. 9% OOS 30% In. UNC accepts well over 40 percent instate (43 ish). Not sure what their OOS rate is this year though usually it’s around 8.5- 9%. 23-24 it was 9.3 so very similar.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:33
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Tufts is one.
WF?
Tulane.
Tulane, Tufts, Chicago are all in the "ED or bust" category. Either much easier or much harder to get into than rankings indicate, depending how you apply.
Middlebury is another "ED or bust" school?
Our school seems sent kids there ED only. But I am not 100% sure, the RD accepted kids may have better option and did not matriculate there.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:31
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:The single digit acceptance rate LACs (WASP, Bowdoin, Colby, Barnard) are extremely picky.
It depends on what high school you're coming from. Colby is a guarantee for a 3.4+ from many privates like the DMV Big3. I was just looking at Scoir data. They have gone down to a 3.2, completely unhooked in recent years from my kid's school.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:26
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Obvious Answer in Northeastern.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:16
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
I would say that Harvey Mudd is very hard to get into, given that students who are well-qualified to get in are the ones who typically apply.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:12
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UMD if in state from a W school. 50% does not tell the real picture.
Can you explain what this means?
I assume they mean the 50% acceptance rate does not apply to a number of MCPS schools (the "W schools") where UMD is now taking fewer applicants.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:10
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
The single digit acceptance rate LACs (WASP, Bowdoin, Colby, Barnard) are extremely picky.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:05
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Tulane, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Auburn
Ummm...Georgia Tech is the number 4 ranked engineering school in the country. Top 1-5 for every engineering discipline.
Yeah...don't think Georgia Tech can be categorized as falling under the radar in rankings or difficulty getting into.
Why not? Its ranked in the 30's overall.
Not quite sure why you felt need to throw any shade here. But here are the stats. GT is very well known as difficult. Top 5 Engineering school in the country. Has always been a extremely hard get, especially out of state at 9% percent overall accept with 6% for engineering. Even overall general admissions for in-state at 30% is more difficult for instate than fellow "Public Ivy" schools like UNC (40% plus in state and UT Austin 45% plus in state) or the other in-state public school UGA with generally a 42-45% acceptance rate for instate. This is common knowledge.
Using public schools is a farce as they limit OOS students. UNC is harder tonget into than Gatech using your metric.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 09:04
Subject: Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Tulane, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Auburn
Ummm...Georgia Tech is the number 4 ranked engineering school in the country. Top 1-5 for every engineering discipline.
Yeah...don't think Georgia Tech can be categorized as falling under the radar in rankings or difficulty getting into.
Why not? Its ranked in the 30's overall.
I think it's pretty well known GT is a really good get. My kid heading to Georgia Tech in the fall from the Midwest for Engineering. During the application process was told by his counselor that GT will be very difficult for anyone out of state. Fell in love with the school's campus and the Tech vibe. Chose GT over Notre Dame, Northwestern and UT Austin, UF for engineering.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 08:59
Subject: Re:Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:If you are out of state, Georgia, has gotten very hard to get into. It's a great school, it's SEC, - super popular now. It's not quite there yet but it's almost in UNC and UVA territory in terms of how hard it is for an out of state applicant to get into.
No, DMV kid got the honors program and significant merit aid at Georgia and barely squeaked into UVA and UNC per our college counseling office. He had the lowest stats among those accepted to UVA among the 30 who applied from his school. And yet UGA (and Clemson and Pitt, etc) gave him all sorts of merit and honors program.
Anonymous
06/23/2025 08:59
Subject: Re:Schools more difficult to get in than their rankings appear to indicate
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If you are out of state, Georgia, has gotten very hard to get into. It's a great school, it's SEC, - super popular now. It's not quite there yet but it's almost in UNC and UVA territory in terms of how hard it is for an out of state applicant to get into.
Georgia has also gotten harder for in-state kids. Zell Miller/Hope Scholarships were a big game-changer.
Georgia also upped the percentage of in-state kids that they need to have by law.