<p>The % accepted data from the early 70s is from a college guide by Cass & Birnbaum from that era. Cass & Birnbaum was the "Princeton Review", etc. of that time; I used it myself at the time. I took the book out of the library. </p>
<p>They actually gave more data back then. They broke out SAT data for male & female applicants separately, for example. They also broke out data seperately for each individaul college at a university, rather than the university as a whole.</p>
<p>The data on recent % accepted was from one of the current college guides, a couple years ago.</p>
<p>Monydad, thanks so much for sharing. I enjoyed the data immensely. Do you happen to know what the acceptance rate for females into Penn/Wharton was in 1972 or even just Penn in general (I was accepted in 1971). I have a feeling it was ALOT higher than it is today.</p>
<p>Actually, some of the alums bemoaned that, when it went co-ed and got more selective. They worried that W & L was admitting kids who would "do great anywhere" which was great for overall statistics but they felt that it changed the character of the place. What they loved about Washington & Lee was that would take a kid who hadn't graduated #1 in his class (but would flourish in the right environment) and turn him into an ambitious, well-rounded, well-educated gentleman.</p>
<p>My uncle is a very proud Notre Dame alum, played a varsity sport there, has donated $, etc. So naturally his son (my cousin) has wanted to go there forever. My cousin applied EA, got deferred, then got waitlisted RD, put in a deposit to Georgetown but got off the waitlist last month so he's going to Notre Dame in the fall. But it still amazes me why ND wouldn't accept him in the first place; this kid is Catholic and definitely has all the credentials (grades, ECs, board scores) to get into the school.</p>
<p>I processed this data for my own use, and didn't save the raw data. </p>
<p>Although I'm sure data for Penn was broken out by college and by sex, I was looking at liberal arts colleges so I'm sure I just kept the data for Arts & Sciences. I combined the male & female scores, since I was comparing to recent data which doesn't break them out.</p>
<p>If you remember, back then, business in general was in extreme disrepute, and the business major was not held in the same esteem it subsequently attained. So I'm sure the scores for Wharton were well below Arts & Sciences at that time.</p>
<p>Penn is among the schools that had the highest jumps in selectivity.</p>
<p>This is what I've got on my spreadsheet:
41% admit, 51% enrolled, SAT 1273.
selectivity ranked 40th then, on my spreadsheet, vs. 12th recently.</p>
<p>The data may actually have been for your class. It may have been the 1972 edition I took out, which had the data for the class entering 1971. I don't recall precisely though.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your reply. And yes, I remember any number of students applying through Wharton so that they could later transfer into the college, lol. Never really understood why. It was relatively easy to transfer between schools in those days and I understand that's also gotten much more difficult today. My daughter is currently attending CAS (College for Women in my days) and I've told her that it was alot easier to get in when I went, but now I have the proof....</p>
<p>lurkermom: I wouldn't submit that proof if I were you. Our kids already think we're idiots, why give them data to back it up?</p>
<p>Actually I found that college admissions overall were pretty tough back then as well (as I thought). Twenty of the schools on my spreadsheet accepted one-third or fewer of their applicants back then. Some schools changed relative positions more than others.</p>