dcircle

after HYP, based on where students with multiple acceptances choose to go
Parchment College Rankings 2013 | Parchment - College admissions predictions.

LoremIpsum

So Brown, the school with the happiest students, comes in just under U. of Chicago, the place where fun goes to die?

i_wanna_be_Brown

It's not a simple rank preference list:

Matchups are scored based on expectation. At the beginning, all schools have the same score, so we expect that all schools have an equal chance of winning a matchup. Quickly, our expectations change. We see that Berkeley rapidly gains points, for example. Our Elo-based system awards more points for unexpected victories against a college with a higher score, an average number of points for victories against another college with a similar score, and fewer points for expected victories against a school with fewer points. In fact, the number of points awarded to the chosen school (and taken from the not-chosen school) is determined by a formula that takes into account the current score of both schools. To use Berkeley as an example again, when Berkeley is chosen over a school with a similar amount of points (such as UCLA), it earns more points than when it is chosen over a school with fewer points. If a student were to choose to attend a university with far fewer points than Berkeley, that university would gain many more points from that victory than Berkeley would have if the student had chosen Berkeley instead.

SquealOfaRaven

Does Brown's recent introduction of need-blind financial aid play a role in its recent increase?

Hmm - I would expect that Brown would have more unexpected victories than, say, Columbia/UPenn/Cornell. But who would win in, say, a Brown vs. Columbia matchup? (of people applying to schools this year).