Brown v. Columbia

NYU2013
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 22:47:35 +0000

Then you’re using the word “selectivity” incorrectly – selectivity is how selective a school is when deciding which candidates ought be admitted into the incoming class.

The acceptance rate of Columbia merely tells you the acceptance rate and NOT how selective the school is, in fact, just because the acceptance rate is slightly lower at Columbia does NOT mean that Columbia is more selective, it could be the case that Brown is more selective! Of course, I highly doubt that this is the case, but it’s merely to indicate that acceptance rate is not reflective of selectivity.

For example, Princeton has a higher acceptance rate than Harvard – but Harvard is not more selective than Princeton.

If you meant that Columbia has a lower acceptance rate than Brown, than you should have said “Columbia has a lower acceptance rate than Brown”, because your claim that Columbia is more selective than Brown is: (1) Accepted to be false; (2) Based on a false premise.

Please learn the difference between acceptance rates and selectivity – this is merely a correlational relationship and a lower acceptance rate does not mean a school is more selective – for example, it could merely just mean that school X receives more applications, but has a limited number of places and therefore accepts only a small number of its total applicants.