<p>I wouldn’t have attended a different school other than UMD. But I would prefer to return to high school to prepare me better.</p>
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<p>The increase in the number of college-bound high school graduates has been faster than the increase in number of seats in colleges and universities. Also, new colleges and universities are often “barely on the radar” for the segment of high school graduates aiming for more selective colleges and universities. In California, that segment still mostly wants to go to (among the public schools) UCB, UCLA, CPSLO, etc., not UCM, CSUSM, CSUMB, CSUCI. For private schools, the top students are still aiming for the most selective schools (HYPSMetc.); there are now many more top students to compete against for the same number of seats there than there were decades ago.</p>
<p>In any case, I did find out the admission thresholds for when I applied and attended. At the time, it was a clear safety for me for any major (though I did not know that while in high school). But taking my stats from then and rescaling the SAT scores and comparing them to the admit/reject reports in April indicates that it would have been a reach or high match for my stats now, depending on major applied to.</p>
<p>@AuntJulia - I grew up in a town with a regional, no-name university and my parents made it abundantly clear that I was going there, or going nowhere. I knew not to even ask for anything else. In my hometown, probably 90 percent of local high school grads at least started there. It was simply what was done so I made the best of it and grew where I was planted. </p>
<p>@UCBAlumnus, you are forgetting to factor in grade inflation. You need to pump up your GPA, too. Nobody gets a C in anything anymore. </p>
<p>LOL. I think most of us who went to college back then would find ourselves in a similar type of situation, now, with the exception of those who were bad grade legacies at top schools, who really don’t get in at the namethatschool places anymore, without a building, the way they once did. </p>
<p>Oh, and of course, the 1 digit percentage acceptances are a lottery for everyone now! So, yeah, I see what you all are saying. </p>
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I do not believe this is necessarily true. Most of the higher end schools are essentially the same size as 30-40 years ago … and there are a lot more students in a cohort group trying to squish into the same spots (the US is a lot bigger than then and there a lot more international students also) … each cohort group now is about double the size as when I applied. I would think A LOT of us (close to 50%) would get bumped from our undergrad school in the new world because of the new demographics.</p>
<p>@poetgirl, it may not be so much the quality of high school or even our grades/stats. Acceptance rates are so much lower now than 30 years ago. I have absolutely no concept of acceptance rates in the teens and single digits. </p>
<p>Back in the 70’s, Harvard and Yale (on the east coast) were seen as the hardest schools to get in and their rates were probably around 20-30%. CalTech was known, in my family, to be the hardest school to get in but there was the size factor - they just didn’t accept as many people as Harvard. My sister claims that in her year (matriculated in 1977), Penn’s acceptance rate was above 50%, closer to 60%. </p>
<p>My own feeling back then was Penn accepted good students but you didn’t have to be stellar and stand out the way you do now. The geographic reach was also smaller. There were three regions: 1) Pennsylvania, NJ, NYC-Long Island; 2) rest of NY, Maryland, Delaware; 3) the rest of the world; or something very similar.</p>
<p>Yes, I would go back to my alma mater (University of Texas) if I had to do it over again. My major would have been different, though. My class rank was in the top 3-4%, so I would have likely been accepted even by today’s standards. </p>
<p>Right. But… And, I’m just adding another perspective, not trying to get in a debate here, I got a perfect ACT. I was in AP classes, back when you just tested into them, not when parents put you in there. I was able to do that and work and have leadership roles in more than one EC, and I went out to parties every weekend and got great grades. But… If I was a student today, I would have studied harder, worked harder, and probably been in the same place, at was then a “feeder” school to the Ivies, back when they had these. </p>
<p>I’m not unfamiliar with how things have changed, but I’m saying we can’t look at the kind of students we were then, under the culture we had. We have to look at the kind of students we would be right now.</p>
<p>I mean, the whole thing is an excercise in “what if.” It’s not really definable one way or the other. One thing I do know, however, is that a few of the legacies with the gentleman’s C’s in what was then called Trig, would not have gotten so easily into Yale or Princeton, from my class. But, they probably would have worked harder today, and their parents would have gotten them tutors and test prep… So…it can’t be quantified.</p>
<p>But, I also don’t really care all that much. I’m just saying you all are selling yourselves short, and you should realize there is huge grade inflation, lots of test prep, and a recentered SAT these days. But, we probably, most of us, would have gone a lot further from home. That’s for sure. B-) </p>
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<p>Even if I grade inflated my GPA to the maximum (A in everything) to go along with my recentered SAT score, the school would not be a safety for me like it was decades ago. Based on admit/reject reports here in April, an applicant with such stats would likely find it a low match to low reach, depending on major applied to.</p>
<p>I.e. back then, the school was a safety for some applicants. Now it is a safety for no one. This means that admission is more competitive than it was then.</p>
<p>Another thing to note: back then, over half of incoming frosh were placed in remedial English composition courses. Now, fewer than 10% of incoming frosh are placed in remedial English composition courses, even though the placement standards appear to be about the same as they were then. So, in all likelihood, the school is admitted better qualified students in an academic sense compared to before.</p>
<p>In 1969 my decision came down to Northeastern or Boston University. The financial aid packages were similar at both schools. I chose Northeastern and have never regretted it. Today I would still choose Northeastern…if I could get in! If not, I would go to BU. </p>
<p>@SlackerMomMD, I was recently searching for proof of Penn’s “Faculty of Arts and Sciences,” which I vividly remember matriculating into in 1978 (although good luck trying to find the undergraduate version when you read through reams of “official” Penn history) and found a front-page story in The Daily Pennsylvanian citing the admit rate that year at a whopping 56%. The average SATs of matriculants is even more horrifying: 
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<p>And I have no idea what that “average predicted index” is, but it certainly suggests that the average student was not going to be getting a lot of “easy A’s.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.library.upenn.edu/docs/kislak/dp/1978/1978_07_01.pdf”>http://www.library.upenn.edu/docs/kislak/dp/1978/1978_07_01.pdf</a></p>
<p>@Dharmawheel, my absolute DREAM SCHOOL had been Bard. Alas, I panicked at its small size and unconventional students when I visited and, in the end, couldn’t afford it anyway. I often wonder what my life would have been like if I’d majored in English there rather than at Penn, which ended up being the most affordable of my options due to its generous FA, even back then. (The others were Boston U. and Temple.)</p>
<p>Penn served me well, all in all, and unlike a lot of my classmates who never got over their Harvard and Yale rejections, I was over the moon to have been accepted into the “Ivy League,” even if Penn was the absolute dregs of it at the time. My grandfather had gone there, as had my mother briefly, and many other relatives, so I’m sure my “legacy” status (and the fact that I’d lost my father in high school and was quite poor) helped me get in.</p>
<p>I’d really wanted to apply to Bryn Mawr but did’t think I was smart enough to get in. I still regret that too!</p>
<p>I was a top student in a top prep school and went to Harvard and majored in art - well Visual and Environmental studies really which included the entire architectural history sequence from the GSD which I loved and became the basis of my senior thesis. My ECs were more than good enough at the time - I imagine if I were to apply today, I’d have beefed them up somewhat. Majoring in art at Harvard was a good decision, though their are times I think I should have gone to RISD and majored in illustration. (I would never have had the guts to do so however.) Strictly speaking Yale migh have been a somewhat better fit since it had an undergrad architecture major and Vincent Scully. (Well known and charismatic architectural historian.)</p>
<p>I appied to Brown as a match and Penn as a safety - which still astounds me.</p>
<p>No one gets Cs anymore?</p>
<p>CC really is a bubble, isn’t it? Yes, students get Cs. I’m not talking about the kids who are slackers, either. Not every kid is an AP or even honors student. Some kids (a lot, actually) take college prep classes and go to regional state universities. There is nothing wrong with these students. They probably make up a bigger part of the population than the straight A students competing for the Ivys, Chicago, Stanford and Duke. They’ll do fine in life. They may not work for Bain or become a neurosurgeon, but they’ll do fine. </p>
<p>I don’t understand this grade inflation thing I keep hearing about. In my daughter’s school, kids work their butts off for their grades. Cs happen. Yes, they do.</p>
<p>If I could do it all over again, I would GO to a four year college (any one that I could afford.) I graduated in 1980 with almost straight As and an above average ACT score, but it was assumed that I would just go to work in a secretarial or a clerical position like my two older sisters. When I approached my parents about maybe going to college, they asked me why and what would I go for. The only thing that I could think of was to be a teacher, and at that time many couldn’t find jobs in my area so I said I didn’t know. Their response was it was silly to go to school for four years and then become a secretary so I ended up not going. I did get a 2 year associates degree later on at a local CC. My husband does not have a four year degree either and it had held him back in the last decade (although not really before then.) Our children will definitely have at least college degrees!</p>
<p>Not sure. Every major thing that’s happened in my life has led to some other major thing. I’m happy how my life’s turned out so I’m not sure I’d change a thing. However, in a vacuum, instead of attending a top 20 university, I’d have gone to the honors college at our state’s well regarded flagship, which had offered me enough scholarship and financial aid dollars to attend loan free. Those first years post college were very difficult for me. After I graduated, I moved to a place far away from home (Philadelphia) and most of the young people I met at work were not burdened with the same amount of student loans. I remember times if I went away on a ski weekend or even attended more than a single happy hour in a given month, one of my loan payments was going to be late. In the case of the ski weekend, it meant several months’ worth of late payments. There would be no way around it. I spent a good five years digging out from under, even sometimes waitressing on weekends to get those loans to a manageable level. Also, I spent so much time during undergrad working that I didn’t really enjoy college as much as I could have. And I also remember dropping specific classes after I received the syllabus simply because I couldn’t afford the books. No question, my choice of prestige over good enough was really stupid in hindsight.</p>
<p>I graduated in 1980 also and if you did well in typing, bookkeeping and shorthand, you could find a good job right out of high school. Today I can’t think of any good-paying jobs that don’t require at least vocational school. </p>
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S1 was an AP/honors kid. His regional state university was a perfect fit for him, financially and academically. He graduated, on time, in May and starts working August 4 at the company at which he did his internship. As a parent, I couldn’t have asked for any more. </p>
<p>I went to Yale, and would go again, if I could get in. I was a high-stats kid from a small town, so I think I’d still have a decent chance. But the cost difference between Yale and my very good in-state option (U.Va.) is greater now, so I don’t know what the current versions of my parents would say about it. Also, my admissions strategy would have to be very different–back then, I applied to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and U.Va.–the very thing I’m always telling people not to do these days.</p>
<p>If I had to choose a different college, I think I’d go to an LAC.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think I might have gone to college closer to home and perhaps stayed in the community where I grew up if I could do it again. Maybe it’s just the old me, but it makes me sad that my siblings and I ended up all over the country and that we don’t have a lot of close ties to our extended families. </p>
<p>I went to Wellesley and got a great education but never really felt like I fit in. Honestly, I think that the kids who come in from monied families with a really strong high school background tend to have advantages that make it really difficult for regular people ever to catch up - I remember having that sense of “we let you in but you will never really be one of us.” Also, even then it was really liberal. I went to Catholic schools and grew up in a fairly sheltered environment and even then, I remember having this sense of really having to watch what I said because a lot of things that I took for granted about how the world worked were not ‘PC’ on this college campus. I remember feeling like I couldn’t be myself.</p>
<p>I went to a then men’s college, Rutgers, in 1960. I would not do that again although Rutgers was just fine academically especially for a history major. </p>