<p>The sheer number of us here and the number of questions and concerns betrays a problem in the college system. There's not enough presitigous spots for all the qualified people. It's so much harder to get accepted at a top institution now than it was just five or six years ago. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix the system so that qualified people get the spots they deserve? If things continue on this path, I wouldn't be surprised if in the next ten or fifteen years college acceptance rates fall below 5%, and people our age will be freaking out BIG TIME.</p>
<p>Who says everyone needs a spot at a "prestigious" school? If there were enough spots for every qualified applicant at the highly-selective schools, then the schools would no longer be highly selective! There are hundreds of excellent colleges besides the 20 or so that are most frequently discussed on this forum.
The solution to the perceived problem is for more people to realize this and not have a "Harvard or Bust" attitude.</p>
<p>Are there really hundreds of excellent colleges? Well, I suppose that depends on one's definitions and standards. Past the top 50 or so, the level of excellence changes rapidly. The stats for admitted students drop greatly. Graduation rates decline rapidly to below 50%. Since teaching rigor moves toward the middle, academic standards can also decline rapidly. To some extent this is a self-correcting problem. As the population grows and more very good students cannot make it into the top schools, the quality of students in the lower tiers may improve. Colleges will compete for these students and will improve their programs, academics and faculty. What is missing from this equation is money. The top elite name schools often have big endowments. Lesser known colleges often have great difficulty attracting donations and surviving financially. We can expect rapidly increasing tuition to pay for the improvements in quality.</p>
<p>Edad- you can get an excellent eduation at many of the big state universities. The quality of the student body is steadily improving and there are lots of research opportunities. Honors colleges are another good option. D is a rising senior at Rice, S is a rising freshman at Penn. Both applied to Indiana and S applied to Georgia. I considered both excellent options.</p>
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There's not enough presitigous spots for all the qualified people.
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<p>What consistutes prestige? Every one does not have attend a group of schools that are first and foremost part of an athletic conference in order to be successful.</p>
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Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix the system so that qualified people get the spots they deserve?
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<p>this statement sounds a little bit like a sense of entitlement.</p>
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Are there really hundreds of excellent colleges? Well, I suppose that depends on one's definitions and standards. Past the top 50 or so, the level of excellence changes rapidly.
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<p>Yes, especially when people start looking at more than the "top 50" national universities where the highest degree obtained is a PhD. </p>
<p>There are liberal arts colleges, where the "top 50" will get you a pretty good education.</p>
<p>Top masters schools like Villanova, Providence, James Madison, Creighton, Valparaiso , Trinity (tx) Santa Clara.Comprehensive colleges like Stonehill, St. Marys, Calvin, and a host of others where students are graduating in large numbers. The problem is that most of these schools don't posssess the "wow" factors that some are looking for and probably fly under the radar with the CC crowd. This does not say that one cannot get a good education.</p>
<p>I agree with MOWC, that people must give up the Harvard or bust, get me into an ivy, any ivy mentality and be willing to cast a wide net.</p>
<p>i know this sounds weird but if everyone was "ivy league" smart, then the word smart would have no meaning anymore. just like if everyone were rich, we wouldn't have a class system, or an economic system for that matter. there would be no need for mediocre colleges, or state schools for that matter.</p>