With the new rankings, Vanderbilt is officially an Ivy-caliber school. Congrats.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Tulane and PSU are now comparably ranked (#54 and #48, respectively)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ No joking! I was top BMOC in my so-so college which is so demanding on College Confidential, I doubt I could get back in it today! Same with law school. It's a whole new world out there. Tough for our kids.

It makes the job of working with parents hard for anyone in the college counseling field. The kids tend to know how competitive things are out there, but the parents rely on notions from 10 years ago or more and urge kids to apply to schools that they have absolutely no chance of getting into. (Although every should apply to a few reach schools and maybe even one really,really reach school).

Colleges that used to be pretty much rolling admissions, colleges that would take anyone, are now competitive. I'm from New England so schools like Northeastern come to mind.

I'm hoping those parents have notions that are 20 or more years old! Otherwise, their kids who are 17 now, were born before these parents even entered college.

Be kind to this college counselor. She has it rough with all of those unrealistic expectations. It makes math difficult.

Not a college counselor but I see and hear idiot parents on this forum and elsewhere spouting their outdated notions. They are doing a great disservice to their kids. Also, a notion is an idea or an opinion. If it is your understanding that one cannot update one's notions regarding a topic, I hope you have excellent computational skills. Your only asset?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ No joking! I was top BMOC in my so-so college which is so demanding on College Confidential, I doubt I could get back in it today! Same with law school. It's a whole new world out there. Tough for our kids.

It makes the job of working with parents hard for anyone in the college counseling field. The kids tend to know how competitive things are out there, but the parents rely on notions from 10 years ago or more and urge kids to apply to schools that they have absolutely no chance of getting into. (Although every should apply to a few reach schools and maybe even one really,really reach school).

Colleges that used to be pretty much rolling admissions, colleges that would take anyone, are now competitive. I'm from New England so schools like Northeastern come to mind.

I'm hoping those parents have notions that are 20 or more years old! Otherwise, their kids who are 17 now, were born before these parents even entered college.

Be kind to this college counselor. She has it rough with all of those unrealistic expectations. It makes math difficult.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ No joking! I was top BMOC in my so-so college which is so demanding on College Confidential, I doubt I could get back in it today! Same with law school. It's a whole new world out there. Tough for our kids.

It makes the job of working with parents hard for anyone in the college counseling field. The kids tend to know how competitive things are out there, but the parents rely on notions from 10 years ago or more and urge kids to apply to schools that they have absolutely no chance of getting into. (Although every should apply to a few reach schools and maybe even one really,really reach school).

Colleges that used to be pretty much rolling admissions, colleges that would take anyone, are now competitive. I'm from New England so schools like Northeastern come to mind.

I'm hoping those parents have notions that are 20 or more years old! Otherwise, their kids who are 17 now, were born before these parents even entered college.

Hopefully one updates one's notions by reading. You know, lifelong learning...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ No joking! I was top BMOC in my so-so college which is so demanding on College Confidential, I doubt I could get back in it today! Same with law school. It's a whole new world out there. Tough for our kids.

It makes the job of working with parents hard for anyone in the college counseling field. The kids tend to know how competitive things are out there, but the parents rely on notions from 10 years ago or more and urge kids to apply to schools that they have absolutely no chance of getting into. (Although every should apply to a few reach schools and maybe even one really,really reach school).

Colleges that used to be pretty much rolling admissions, colleges that would take anyone, are now competitive. I'm from New England so schools like Northeastern come to mind.

I'm hoping those parents have notions that are 20 or more years old! Otherwise, their kids who are 17 now, were born before these parents even entered college.

Anonymous wrote:The top 10% go to the flag ship state schools in their state and second tier privates (1st tier noted below). The top 10%-20% go to flagship schools out of state. At least that is how it seems to work in northern Virginia. As a pp noted, the top .5% go to the Ivies and MIT, Williams, Stanford, Amherst...

The second tier privates are one like seven sisters, Vanderbilt, U of Chicago, Colby, Bowdoin, Carleton, Rice.... too numerous to name.

Based on rankings out today by USNWR:

National Universities:
U of Chicago #4, 8.8% acceptance
Rice #19 16.7% acceptance
Vanderbilt #16, 12.7% acceptance

Liberal Arts Colleges:
Wellesley #4 - 29.1% acceptance
Smith #19, 43.1% acceptance
Barnard #32, 20.5%
Bryn Mawr #27, 39.9% acceptance
Vassar #11 24.1% acceptance
Mt. Holyoke #41, 46.8% acceptance
Colby #15 26% acceptance
Bowdoin #5 - 15% acceptance
Carleton #8 - 21% acceptance

USNWR rankings aren't the end all, but they give you an idea. I wouldn't consider any of the schools you list second tier except for Mt. Holyoke. They may not be at the very top but they are very competitive schools. When I think of second tier I think Franklin and Marshall, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Allegheny, Denision, Ohio Wesleyan, Northeastern, BU, Syracuse, Skidmore, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Univ of Wisconsin at Madison, GW, Tulane, Connecticut College, Trinity (Hartford), Furman, Hobart, The College of Wooster, etc. To me second tier means schools that are competitive just not very competitive or the most competitive.

Anonymous wrote:^^ No joking! I was top BMOC in my so-so college which is so demanding on College Confidential, I doubt I could get back in it today! Same with law school. It's a whole new world out there. Tough for our kids.

It makes the job of working with parents hard for anyone in the college counseling field. The kids tend to know how competitive things are out there, but the parents rely on notions from 10 years ago or more and urge kids to apply to schools that they have absolutely no chance of getting into. (Although every should apply to a few reach schools and maybe even one really,really reach school).

Colleges that used to be pretty much rolling admissions, colleges that would take anyone, are now competitive. I'm from New England so schools like Northeastern come to mind.

^^ No joking! I was top BMOC in my so-so college which is so demanding on College Confidential, I doubt I could get back in it today! Same with law school. It's a whole new world out there. Tough for our kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You need to do a little research if this shocks you! Anyone who thinks that any of these schools is second tier is in for a big surprise.

A lot has changed in the past 20 years!

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You need to do a little research if this shocks you! Anyone who thinks that any of these schools is second tier is in for a big surprise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

One of these is not like the others. What are you, some kind of Amherst troll?

Nah. Amherst is 3rd tier.

Go do your homework kid.

Someone's playing you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

One of these is not like the others. What are you, some kind of Amherst troll?

Nah. Amherst is 3rd tier.

Go do your homework kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USC.

The only "second tier" USC would be South Carolina (and a great choice at that).

Anonymous wrote:

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

One of these is not like the others. What are you, some kind of Amherst troll?

Nah. Amherst is 3rd tier.