Is it really THAT hard to get into a top ten or Ivy League college?

Question

Okay, I got a letter from Washington University in St. Louis talking about how they would like me to attend their school and such. Normally, I wouldn't think that much of it, but this is different. I looked up the school and found out that they were ranked as the 8th toughest school to get into by U.S News Reports and the Princeton Review (2 very very reliable sources). I don't understand why this school is ranked so high if most of my friends and I got letters from them. Are they just trying to recruit? Does this mean that I have a good shot at Columbia (one of my dream schools that is ranked lower than this school)?

Thanks so much for trying to help!

Answer 1

Ponder to think as to how Washington University got your contact address. Most probably College Board provided them with this. It is a service which College Board sells to interested Universities.
While taking SAT test your details were collected by the Board.
The scores were tabulated and made available to the colleges.
Thus this is not an offer of admission from Washington but only an invitation to apply to all those who scored above certain benchmark.
Incentives do get better results for universities as in any other competitive activity.
If you are a good catch for Washington you may be a potential material for Columbia.Consider this.
Good Luck
NBS

Answer 2

If you check the US News and some other sites you will see that the admission to the top schools is extremely competitive. Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other similar schools reject up to 90% of their applicants. And, they get thousands of really well qualified applicants, so they arent just rejecting unqualified dummies.

Washington U is supposed to be a good school, but they are also notorious for handing out a lot of scholarship money to buy good students from around the country. I know four young people who went there - two loved it, two hated it and left after a year. So, you will have to ask around a lot and see what people say. Do they have good kids because they buy them, or because the very best kids choose to go there?

I notice online that Harvard Yale and Stanford each have over 200 National Merit scholars enrolled in last years class, and Wash U has 198. The difference is, Harvard Yale and Stanford didnt give any of those kids NM scholarships, while Wash U gave NM scholarships to 145 of them. So that explains the difference between the schools.

Wash U is supposed to be a good school,. though. So if they offer you money you will have a tough choice.... Wash for a discount, Columbia for full price.... which is better for you?