Every accredited U.S. college fills out a Common Data Set (CDS) each year, and Section C7 asks it to rate exactly how much weight it gives 18 different admission factors -- from academic rigor to legacy status -- on a four-tier scale: Very Important, Important, Considered, or Not Considered. See our general guide to reading a Common Data Set if you want the full picture of what the document covers. This piece is about what the 8 Ivies specifically say, side by side, in their own words -- and a few of the real answers cut against what most people assume about "what elite schools want." For the athletic-conference origin of the "Ivy League" label itself, rather than what each school individually weighs, see our full explainer.

Two of the most selective schools in the country don't look at class rank at all

Harvard and Brown both rate class rank "not considered." Yale, Dartmouth, and Princeton all rate it "very important" -- the opposite end of the scale, at three schools admitting from the same broad applicant pool. Columbia, Cornell, and Penn sit in between at "important." There's no single "Ivy League answer" here -- it's a real, published four-way split on one of the more commonly assumed-important academic factors.

This tracks with a well-documented, separate trend: a shrinking share of U.S. high schools report class rank at all, which makes it a less reliable comparison point school to school -- Harvard and Brown's choice to drop it isn't an outlier position nationally, just an uncommon one specifically within the Ivy League.

Columbia is the outlier on interview and demonstrated interest

Columbia is the only Ivy that rates both the interview and "level of interest" (demonstrated interest -- whether you've visited campus, engaged with admissions emails, applied early, and so on) as "very important." No other Ivy rates either factor that highly. Penn is the only Ivy that explicitly does not consider the interview at all; the other 6 rate it "considered," a real factor but not a decisive one.

Demonstrated interest specifically is worth understanding on its own -- Columbia's "very important" rating here is a genuine, published exception, not the Ivy League norm; most Ivies either don't track it or weigh it lightly.

Legacy is considered at all 8 -- none has dropped it

"Alumni relation" (legacy) is rated "considered" at every single Ivy League school, per each school's most recent Common Data Set. That's consistent even after the 2023 Supreme Court ruling ending race-conscious admissions prompted roughly 92 other colleges nationally to stop considering legacy status -- none of the Ivies has followed. Being "considered" is the same rating tier as things like geographical residence or volunteer work, though -- it's real, documented weight, not automatically the outsized advantage the word "legacy" implies. See our breakdown of what's actually disclosed about legacy admit rates for the two schools where real numbers, not just a rating tier, exist.

The Common Data Set covers more than admission factors, too -- Section C2's waitlist figures show the same pattern of uneven disclosure across the 8 Ivies that C7 shows here.

The full comparison

See the complete 18-factor breakdown for all 8 schools -- academic factors (rigor, GPA, test scores, essays, recommendations) and nonacademic factors (interview, extracurriculars, character, first-generation status, legacy, geography, state residency, religious affiliation, volunteer work, work experience, and demonstrated interest) side by side, sourced directly from each school's own Common Data Set filing.

What this means for you

  • Don't assume every Ivy weighs the same things the same way. Class rank alone splits the 8 schools into two real camps -- check the specific school's own Section C7 rather than generalizing from "Ivy League" as a category.
  • A strong class rank matters less at Harvard and Brown than it does at Yale, Dartmouth, or Princeton -- if your school ranks you and your rank isn't your strongest number, that's a real, published reason those two schools specifically might be a better fit for your application.
  • Don't over-invest in demonstrated interest across the board -- Columbia is the real exception here, not the rule. Visiting campus or engaging with admissions emails is unlikely to move the needle at the other 7 Ivies the way it might at Columbia.
  • Legacy status is real everywhere in the Ivy League, but the actual size of the advantage is only genuinely disclosed at two schools -- see the dedicated legacy piece linked above before assuming a specific number applies broadly.

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