The Prestige Gap: Ivy Reject School?

WCASParent
Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:21:41 +0000

First, I have to agree that yield is a poor criterion for judging a school’s quality. The fact is that NU is rated as a peer of schools like Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, Duke, Cornell, JHU, etc., and I think that’s impressive company.
Second, if you take a larger sampling of yields, you’ll see that 33% or so is pretty standard for top flight schools, and that NU’s yield is not impressive only when it is compared to schools that enjoy unearthly yields.

I think the more important thing to look at is the quality of the students NU is getting, the upward trend in SATs, and the enormous jump in applications the last two years (18% one year and 19% the next). Few top schools can compare to that (in fact, Duke’s applications dropped between 1 and 2% last year). Finally, talk to some experienced academics from all over the country. I have been told, by someone who has attended and/or taught at Princeton, U of Chicago, Penn and Pomona that NU is incredibly well respected for its academic quality.