Why are Ivy League schools so selective of who they want attending their college?

im not saying im going to apply because im not good enough but im just asking why are they?

esp Harvard



out of curosity I want to know-what does it take to get accepted into these schools? and why do they only accept people straight out of high school? do they feel they are ready for Ivy League work? what kind of people attend these schools?? smart computerized robots?? ANYTHING???

Why are Ivy League schools so selective of who they want attending their college?
They are very selective because they have to be. They have the best students in the country applying to their school, so it's not that they are being selective. Rather, they are simply choosing the best diverse people that apply.



Theres no formula to follow if you wanna get into a school like Harvard. You just have to be dedicated to what you are doing and what you hope to do with your life. Just because you have straight A's and a perfect SAT score does not guarantee you entry into a school like Harvard. It's the students that helped start a chapter of students against drunk driving at their school which helped raise 10,000 dollars which they gave to some charity.



Harvard wants those students that are great allaround and will therfore only add to the reputation that Harvard has for being one of the better schools in the country.



It's not true that they only accept students out of high school. Every college in the country has a graduate and undergraduate program, and it's no different at Harvard.
Reply:If you have a relative who attended Harvard or Yale for example, you have a better chance of going to that college. If you have no connections to an Ivy League schools, you must get around a 4.0 GPA, get an excellent SAT score, be in the top 10% of you class, and participate in many extracuricular activities, and live in a geographic area that the admissions board is looking at. Ivy League schools want the best of the best to attend their schools. They don't want average joes or slack offers at their school. For example, I have a 3.4 GPA, my grandfather attended Harvard, served on the admissions board, and has many connections which be believes can really give me a good shot of getting into Harvard, mainly because of my connections.
Reply:Ivy League schools are called such because of their fame they give, and the sort of teaching they provide. Sure, the professors at Harvard may be the same as the professors at your local university - but they don't have Harvard on their resume, now do they? Ivy League schools are extremely costly, and they do a lot of "weeding out" of students by being so. Students are also weeded out underneath the strict regulations and academic requirements for becoming a student.



All it really boils down to is the cliche of popular kids like in high school. The Ivy League are the popular kids of universities. They're rich, powerful, famous, and prestigious.
Reply:Why are they so selective? Because they can be. They've been around for long enough to build up incredible name recognition and financial resources, and that attracts top faculty and students.



As for the people who go there, some manage on family connections, but most of them are very, very smart, driven people who have a good idea of what they want and are willing to work very hard to be successful at it. They're not robots (though sometimes it's tough to get them off a particular mental track), and they're not all undergrads. In fact, some people wait until grad school to shoot for the Ivies because they think they'll get more attention from professors that way.