And these numbers have dropped even more post-pandemic with the huge increase in #applications and test optional policies.
For example MIT’s acceptance rate was 4.1% last year and 3.96% this year!
Yes! That’s why I decided to not put any pressure on my kid about admissions. I made it very clear to him that he was not to have any dream school. Who knows what these admissions people are thinking?!?
I guess that’s why some tried “admission by PhotoShop”? 
I think MIT is aiming for 3.14159265…% acceptance rate 
I think you need to check your sources and check your numbers. Penn’s overall acceptance rate in 1990 was reportedly 41% (still a far cry from today’s single digits). I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other errors in the table.
But its overall meaning is totally true. The game has completely changed since 40 years ago.
LOL. Knowing their obsession with PI (results on pi day, at 2*pi time, etc) I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually did this 
I remember in my senior year of high school in 1988 one of my friends said he was going to the University of Pennsylvania … I remember that I felt sorry for him and I thought to myself, I guess he isn’t very smart 
. That 40-50% acceptance rate has dipped a bit, hasn’t it ?
It was actually 38% that year.
I know what you mean about sources. I saw this on a random article from 2019. Even though the numbers might be off here and there, it still shows how different admission standards were back then. Kids today are playing with ridiculously stricter odds. I’m not sure we should put that much emphasis on these schools anymore.