<p>I’ve heard of people from Atlanta getting into less difficult Ivies (Brown, Cornell, even Columbia) but not getting into Duke–they speculate that this is because the Southeast, especially metropolitan areas, makes up a disproportionally large percentage of the applicant pool to Duke but relatively lower for the Ivies. Any truth to this difference in difficulty based on region? Thanks!</p>
<p>Brown has a lower acceptance rate (this year will probably be Brown’s ~9% vs Duke’s ~12%), but that is more due to a difference in applicant numbers than student quality. I think Duke might actually have a higher 25th%-75th% SAT range than Brown, because from my (limited, anecdotal) experience, Duke’s admissions department is more stat based, whereas Brown’s is a little more holistic/based on ECs + essays. </p>
<p>All in all I’d say it’s too close to call. They are pretty much in exactly the same selectivity tier, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are an equal amount of kids getting into Duke and rejected from Brown as there are getting rejected from Duke and into Brown each year.</p>