Originally Posted by jack'smom
If a kid wants Duke or a really top school, they are kind of forced to take a million AP courses and not do the fun extra-curricular activities that don't "get you anywhere." I don't agree with all of that but that is what has happened to college applications. It has gotten super competitive to get into a good college.

It depends on where you want to go for graduate school.

For instance, if you want to go to Duke for law school (which I don't recommend), it's easier to get into Duke Law from Penn State (and 100 other places) than it is from Duke undergrad.