Program competitiveness ranking

[Penglu]

Hi all, I have read some posts here regarding different programs, and checked their acceptance rates. But as you know, the acceptance rates do not reflect the school's competitiveness accurately, since most likely applicants with strong background will go for better program. Right now, I am considering apply to Princeton, CMU, NYU, Columbia and Cornell. Could anyone please kindly help me rank the competitiveness of these programs?

From what I have researched on, seems like Princeton is a little biased on its placement rates. They are more likely to take a student with strong working background, which means they may already have a good chance of getting into some jobs immediately upon graduation. In this way, the school can publish high placement rates and attract more competitive people.

So my second question is, what is the possible objective rankings for the job placement for students with nonworking experience?

Thank you guys. All of you are very helpful in my application process.

A brief background:
Oberlin College, Maths and Econ Double Major, GPA 3.8+
GRE V710+Q800+4.0
Phi Beta Kappa

 

[Andy Nguyen]

That's a good question and I think some thoughts are needed before an answer can be given.
I don't know of many programs that give you placement stats for students with no work experience. Baruch MFE does have those stats.
The problem is that very few programs publish any meaningful stats on admission, placement so I don't know if we have enough data to make any objective observation.

Even if a program reports 100% placement rate, do you really know how do they come up with that number?