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The IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology) system is almost an order of magnitude more competitive than the average Ivy League University in the US. About 0.9%

The IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology) system is almost an order of magnitude more competitive than the average Ivy League University in the US. About 0.9% of IIT applicants will be admitted. Compare to Ivy League Universities, which range from 4.5% (Harvard) to 10.6% (Cornell). That said, I spoke with one IIT graduate who tried to downplay the experience. I could never tell if he was being humble or polite, or if he really felt the difficult was exaggerated. He was smart, but he didn't seem to have missed out on a childhood for the sake of getting into IIT. Of course, I grew up with several smart peers who made getting into Ivy League universities look like a walk in the park.

analog31 6y ago
I'm skeptical of acceptance rates, because the denominator is not controlled in any way. Maybe IIT's application fee is lower.
ZephyrBlu 6y ago
4.5% for Harvard honestly seems high to me. Do you have a source? (Not doubting, moreso curious about other Ivys).
- perpetualpatzer 6y ago
  It was 4.5 in 2019 (the last non-COVID cycle).[0] [0]https://qz.com/1584304/acceptances-rates-at-top-us-colleges-dropped-further-for-the-class-of-2023/ https://qz.com/1584304/acceptances-rates-at-top-us-colleges-...
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  Acceptance rates are pretty meaningless. For example Oxford and Cambridge have seemingly very high acceptance rates... but this is because in the UK students can only apply to one top-tier university. The Ivy League has tiny acceptance rates because many students apply to many of them. I guess you could apply to literally all of them if you wanted to? Does that make them harder to get into?
  - caddemon 6y ago
    It is indeed common for one person to apply to most of the Ivy's, and schools care about yield so there are also various tricks employed like waitlisting students they think are not seriously considering the school (Harvard doesn't really do this though, moreso a thing with the tier 1b schools). However there is the flip side that it's rare to apply to one of these schools as a random "why the hell not" reach. Probably 90% of the applicant pool has a good enough background to feel they are a serious competitor, which would be the top fraction of college bound seniors overall. I would guess the IIT exam is a less self selected pool.
- twiddling 6y ago
  1/3 of Harvard admits are legacy, so you're competing for the remaining 2/3 of the freshman class slots.
  - ZephyrBlu 6y ago
    That's a shit load of legacy admissions. Seems like it would be quite cliquey.

analog31 6y ago

I'm skeptical of acceptance rates, because the denominator is not controlled in any way. Maybe IIT's application fee is lower.

ZephyrBlu 6y ago

4.5% for Harvard honestly seems high to me. Do you have a source? (Not doubting, moreso curious about other Ivys).

perpetualpatzer 6y ago
It was 4.5 in 2019 (the last non-COVID cycle).[0] [0]https://qz.com/1584304/acceptances-rates-at-top-us-colleges-dropped-further-for-the-class-of-2023/ https://qz.com/1584304/acceptances-rates-at-top-us-colleges-...
chrisseaton 6y ago
Acceptance rates are pretty meaningless. For example Oxford and Cambridge have seemingly very high acceptance rates... but this is because in the UK students can only apply to one top-tier university. The Ivy League has tiny acceptance rates because many students apply to many of them. I guess you could apply to literally all of them if you wanted to? Does that make them harder to get into?
- caddemon 6y ago
  It is indeed common for one person to apply to most of the Ivy's, and schools care about yield so there are also various tricks employed like waitlisting students they think are not seriously considering the school (Harvard doesn't really do this though, moreso a thing with the tier 1b schools). However there is the flip side that it's rare to apply to one of these schools as a random "why the hell not" reach. Probably 90% of the applicant pool has a good enough background to feel they are a serious competitor, which would be the top fraction of college bound seniors overall. I would guess the IIT exam is a less self selected pool.
twiddling 6y ago
1/3 of Harvard admits are legacy, so you're competing for the remaining 2/3 of the freshman class slots.
- ZephyrBlu 6y ago
  That's a shit load of legacy admissions. Seems like it would be quite cliquey.