As a faculty member at SU, I can say as a general rule, at the undergrad level, both JHU and Princeton are more difficult to get into academically. Both JHU and Princeton have much smaller incoming classes and more legacy applicants limiting the number of open seats, so they can be and subsequently are more selective. Having said this, certain programs at SU are equally or are more selective, for example programs in Architecture, Maxwell and Newhouse are very difficult to get into. At the Grad level all bets are off. Many of our grad programs are highly rated and very difficult to get into.
Having colaborated with faculty at dozens of universities, I can say that the faculty at SU are as good or better. So while some other universities may be more selective it doesn't necessarily mean a better education. Be careful to not sell SU short, we offer a quality education and work really hard to help students get great jobs after graduation
