CC experiment. I dare you all. "HPYCS"

warblersrule
Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:09:00 +0000

RML:

I gues it’s safe to assume that nearly everyone at Caltech, MIT and Stanford have also been admitted to either of them and HYP. Very rarelyw ould you meet someone at Columbia who has been admitted to HYPSMC.

Those times are past and gone, RML. People who dwell on Peer Assessment and rankings have an unfortunate (though amusing) tendency to disregard reality.

I recently calculated 2014 admit rates. The RD admit rates at Columbia, Stanford, and Yale were 6.60%, 5.70%, and 5.21%, respectively. It is true that ED somewhat artificially lowers Columbia’s RD rate, but the same occurs for Stanford and Yale with SCEA, albeit at a slightly lower rate. Regardless, it’s perfectly clear that those institutions are equally selective for the vast majority of applicants (those applying RD).

These days, I would be about as surprised to hear of a Columbia reject getting into Yale as I would a Columbia admit getting rejected from Stanford – that is to say, not surprised at all. Heck, with Brown (~7.5% RD rate), Dartmouth (10% RD rate), and even Penn (~10.5% RD rate) steadily gaining in selectivity, the gap continues to narrow at an ever faster rate.