The Ivies - admission

[cookderosa]

Here's the thing that is hard to swallow- when you hear acceptance rates are 5% or so, you think, but I'm in the top of my class, so I've got a shot. Here's the truth- the applicant pool sending their application to the Ivys already consists of top students. I read 30-something percent of all applicants are ALREADY their class valedictorian. So, when valedictorians are getting turned down, you have to put that in context.

Yes, grad school is considerably easier to get into. First, fewer applicants. Not everyone goes. Second, fewer financial options- many people are burdened by debt already and can't pay; Financial aid programs like Pell Grants are not applicable to grad school, so you need to have cash or credit. Third, adults in the traditional age set that attend grad school have competing interests- marriage, family, etc. that make them more likely to seek out alternatives like distance learning, part time attendance, or simply waiting. Finally, graduate degrees for careers in which they are REQUIRED for the profession (vet, doc, dentist, pharm) are AS COMPETITIVE as anything else- maybe even more so. So, if you're going for graduate school theology at Harvard, I'm putting all my pennies on an acceptance letter.