Ohio State, crazy how difficult it’s become for in state students.
BU and Northeastern
San Diego State was once considered a safety. Back in the 80s they accepted everyone. This year it wasn’t uncommon to read on this forum that many kids accepted to the 2nd tier UCs (UCSD, UCD, UCSB, UCI) were denied by State.
With regard to UT Austin, back in my day, they sent me a pre-printed application with my top quarter standing and SAT score already typed in. All I had to do was sign the one page form and put it back in my mail box. The minimum SAT needed was 1000. -granted that was on a very old scoring system but still!
UT today does have auto admit for the top 6% but, no one is guaranteed their chosen major. -and they aren’t sending those nice pre-filled applications out anymore either!
UW-Madison, when I was a kid that’s where you went if you had no idea what you wanted and didn’t have a perfect GPA.
Yep, UW-Madison. Used to be auto admit for every Wisconsin applicant in the top half of his or her high school class.
U of Pennsylvania (not Penn State!) was my safety. That astounds me now. Vassar was a safety at my school for B students - the founding headmistress had attended and every once in a while there would be a girl who miscalculated her applications (all three of them) and the current headmistress would call Vassar and off they went.
UIUC
Back in the stone ages, if you could cut the check you were in at USC.
One of my kids went to BU…and really…I think he would still be accepted there.
The second kid went to Santa Clara. I’m not sure she would even be considered for admission now. She had a great gpa but meh SAT scores (1230). She did have a great application. LOR and essay…but still.
Neither BU nor SCU would be safeties anymore.
@trackmbe3, as an Ohio native and HS grad, I find it regrettable that Governor Jim Rhodes really harmed Ohio State with his populist views on state higher ed forcing all Ohio public colleges to have open admissions from the early 1960s until the mid 1980s. Ohio State has long been a strong school academically and resource wise, but Rhodes’ policy caused tOSU to become bloated enrollment-wise – which is why, in the age of mega-big schools, tOSU is still one of the biggest (I guess TAMU finally and barely passed OSU’s 60K students with a whopping 63K students of their own!). When I was looking at schools, Ohio State was looked down upon with it’s open admissions and was in part why I opted for Miami Univ. of Ohio (in Oxford), initially, at least… Miami was, and is, looked upon as the elite public U in Ohio … apparently Miami legally got around Rhodes’ edict by allowing open admissions to all students who could commute to campus. Well, as many know, Miami was and is rather isolated in the sticks on the fringes of Cincinnati’s metro area adjacent to the Indiana state line. Miami did have satellite in urban areas whereby the open admissions policy would work, but the Oxford campus maintained fairly strict admissions standards.
I’m glad Ohio State has junked that old policy and has once again emerged as one of the country’s high-quality public universities… at least in the mind of Millennials and other more younger generations.
@Quincy4 <<once again="" emerged="" as="" one="" of="" the="" country’s="" high-quality="" public="" universities…at="" least="" in="" mind="" millennials="" and="" other="" more="" younger="" generations="">> Agree and this goes to show that long-held perceptions (amongst the parent and grandparent generation) of safety schools, like first impressions and old habits, are hard to erase. The recent years recruitment of top in-state and out-of-state students with merit scholarships, strong and plentiful academic programs and investment in new academic and rec facilities—new north campus and new dorms, Fisher college of business, Blackwell, R-PAC, new student union, and tearing down eyesores on N High street and replacement with modern upscale restaurants and apartments, coupled with the strong old college traditions, and historic Ohio Stadium and Buckeyes make this school a new favorite amongst the younger generation of today.
One missing factor in the discussion is lack of new Universities. I see many new High Schools are being built and current ones are overwhelmed - so more students year after year. But I don’t see new & good colleges being established to accommodate the population. Unfortunately, I don’t see US investing in kids and infrastructure. How many mega infra or public projects (including going to moon or space shuttle) established since 1990? Pretty much zero.
There are approximately 30% more kids today than in 80’s.
@georgiaflorida, many flagships have grown in size since the '80’s.
For example, UIUC has expanded from 26K+ undergrads in 1991 to 33K+ undergrads in 2017.
OK, granted, there has been more of an increase in population and more kids are going to college, but there is also a flight to the top. For example, at Western Illinois, undergrad enrollment has actually fallen from 10K in 2007 to 6K in 2018.
Also, in growing states, most have not opted for the AZ model of ever increasing the size of 2 universities (UA and ASU in AZ) to gigantic proportions and multiple campuses.
In FL, for instance, they have grown many of the publics below UF and FSU. UCF has grown from 12K students in 1980 to 66K students in 2017.
Since much of Arizona’s population and population growth is in the Phoenix metro area, it does make sense from a state standpoint to expand ASU in order to maximize the number of students for whom lower cost commuting is possible. UA is in the state’s second largest metro area (Tucson). But that does leave people in the smaller cities (other than Flagstaff, where NAU is) without a local four year state university.
CSU Long Beach 100k applicants, 32% acceptance rate, average freshman GPA 3.5. Just crazy…
I’m glad Ohio State has junked that old policy and has once again emerged as one of the country’s high-quality public universities… “
Once again?
All UCs
Northeastern! It was always known for their experiential learning model, but it was not selective, nor was it very popular among achieving Boston suburb students. Now it is highly selective and extremely prestigious among NE students.