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