<p>Thats good for you. The student preference list is really irrelevant in regards to how good an institution is. Would anyone really honestly contend that Brown is better than Columbia and significantly better than Cornell or Duke? Choose what schools is better for you, not the one that others prefer. </p>
<p>Also, “Only 8 percent of the people who do not enroll at Stanford choose to go to Princeton. On the other hand, 28 percent choose Harvard, 20% choose Yale, and 13% choose MIT.” How does that prove that Princeton is less selective than Stanford. Last US News Selectivity ranking placed Stanford 6th, behind Yale, Princeton, MIT, Harvard and Caltech. Looking at those selectivity rankings, it could just as easily be interpreted that only 8% went to Princeton because not that many got in. Hell, the 25/75 percentiles of incoming SAT scores are nearly identical at Stanford and Princeton (with Stanford having a lower 25th). To say that Princeton is in any way significantly less selective than Harvard, Yale, Stanford or MIT is really quite stupid.</p>
<p>This study has popped up now and then and I’m still inclined to believe that is quite flawed. First off, its authored by a professor at Penn and a professor at Harvard, bias anyone? Secondly, those little curves are just plain ■■■■■■■■, they don’t take into account the fact that these colleges have to admit differently. Princeton has to accept a larger proportion of its class as athletic recruits namely because it is a smaller school. Athletic recruits would understandably on average have lower SAT scores, hence there would be a slight bulge at a lower SAT band where it appears that there is a higher probability of getting accepted.</p>