It’s interesting reading your’s and others accounts of the HS rigor and college app process in the 80s. DH’S school was similar to your experience, but I didn’t know that until D20 started the process. Reading these responses, I’m realizing my school may not have been the norm; it was a low SES district, and we only had 2 tracks, Tech and college prep. I’d never even heard of AP classes and most kids either didn’t go to college or went to a close in-state school. Most were 1st gen college students, so we didn’t even know all this stuff existed. It’s quite fascinating to read how prevalent these opportunities were.
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My journey: I applied to 5, visited 1 to do an interview, visited another of them (my in state state-supported LAC) as part of a scholarship competition. I did not see the campus of the school i picked until freshman orientation. I picked them because the aid package worked and they were the most hands on during the late stages of the process. This included my admissions counselor calling to see what she could do to help me decide. As aside, about a decade later the counselor and I ended up reconnecting when we were part of the same promotion class at the Federal agency we both worked at
D1’s story. Visited 3 (including my alma mater) on spring break junior year roadtrip, visited 1 on prospective student day on Columbus Day. She decided to apply to my alma mater early action but treated like early decision and did no other applications. Her logic was she would know by early December and if she didn’t get in she’d have a couple of weeks to finish up other applications. She got accepted and it turned out to be a great fit
D2’s path was different. We also visited 3 over spring break. We visited 2 more on our way back home from dropping her sister off at college. We did a visit to 3 more over Columbus Day weekend. We also did a revisit to 1 at some point that fall. She applied to 6 or 7. TBH, i dont remember how many she got into. One fell off the table after went to a scholarship competition weekend where she decided it was not a good fit. She went to an accepted students day at the school she picked and it just felt right to her (and the finances worked for us).
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I agree things are more competitive, but also the SAT has been recalibrated (so add 100-150 points to your 1993 score to give you an estimate of what you would have scored today) and of course lots of grade inflation.
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I’m fascinated by how many applied to only one school!
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I was an A/B (more B’s than A’s) student with honors rigor in English & social studies. I was in regular level math & science classes. AP’s were limited at the time - I took one AP history class. The electives that I took were chosen based on how fun the classes were, with no consideration on whether they’d look good on college apps. I graduated with a Regents diploma, which was all the rage at the time.
I never stressed about schoolwork or standardized tests. My EC’s were mostly through the church I attended. I had a part time job for junior & senior year. I did better on the ACT than the SAT (which I took because I was told that midwestern universities liked that test better) but neither score was anywhere near what my kids scored. I had no knowledge or care about rankings but the universities I applied to must have fallen in the midlevel/average category because I had no trouble getting in.
I did have a coveted paid internship my senior year at IBM (which was right next door to my high school). They had a program for seniors at local high schools where we’d go to school until noon and then work at IBM from 1-5pm. You had to apply and interview and have a certain gpa. I worked for the engineering dept - not the software type but rather building engineers. It had nothing to do with what I thought I wanted as a career, but I had fun running blueprints and messing around on CAD. Some of my friends worked in the clean rooms and had to wear the clean suits. This possibly boosted my applications, as IBM was very hot back then.
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I graduated in 1988 from a small Catholic school in MS. I am not Catholic or religious, the public school was just not for me. I was a Navy Brat who had moved every two years. By the time I was in HS I was DONE with moving and having to make new friends. I applied to the two schools that my 2 best friends applied to and ended up at a large southern state school with them. I had visited the two I applied to. My dad thought I was limiting myself and he applied for me to a third school (he may have even written an essay 
). I got in to all 3. I don’t remember any guidance from the school, I don’t even recall if we had a guidance counselor. I had what would now be considered terrible test scores. I did no prep and was only in (gasp!) Algebra 2 as a senior. But my grades and class rank, and out of state status were enough to earn a scholarship for in state tuition. I ended up transferring for my last year to a school near my parents in DC because, surprise, the school I was at, who was not accredited in my major when I started, had not earned their accreditation as promised when I was accepted.
My daughter is seemingly almost as un-interested in choosing a school as I was. She is high stats, and thinks she wants a small New England LAC. She is applying to 11. Of those we have visited 2. And one of those rejected her REA. We did visit a few that she didn’t end up applying to. She is STILL (Dec. 29th) writing essays, and has 4 more to submit. She won’t let me read them, and I am afraid has not done much research for the “why such and such school” essays. She also did virtually no prep for her tests but is much smarter than I am and retook her 34 ACT because she thought she could get one more point and ended up with a 36 on her second attempt. I then said no when she wanted to retake her SAT. I fear she is not used to having to work very hard despite a rigorous HS. She is in at two safeties, has 2 more likelies, and 7 reaches (but Naviance scattergrams for her school show them as having better odds than the published acceptance rates).
I know for sure that as the parent I am stressing out about this process MUCH more than I did when I was the student.
edited to add- I just remembered that I had an interview for an ROTC scholarship that I am certain my dad must have applied for because I had ZERO interest. I am SURE that came across loud and clear in my interview lol.
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Remember how awesome it was to get the Sears catalog & dream about getting the cool stuff in it? I had a copy of Peterson’s Guide to Colleges that I treated the same way. I loved that thing! I wanted to go to Radcliffe or Barnard or Princeton or one of the other amazing schools with amazing students. I was so bummed that I couldn’t afford them. I survived, though, and my life has been great. I try to communicate that to young people when they are upset that they can’t go to a school they can’t afford. I’ve been there, I understand, and life really does go on.
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In your daughter, I trust. Sounds like she’s got it covered more than she is letting on.
Any kid who retakes a 34 and still wants to retake an SAT after a 36 is likely more engaged than you realize…but keeping it close to the vest.
Hopefully.
Congrats to her.
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Late '70s, scholarship kid at Northeast independent school where we had an engaged and helpful college counselor. Visited a bunch of schools on a road trip in a rickety car with friends and stayed on the floor of people we knew from home. I thought Wesleyan would be “it” but couldn’t get off campus fast enough once I actually visited. Fell in love with Brown. Applied to three schools – Brown, another Ivy, and a LAC near home as a financial back up. Admitted to Brown and back-up LAC, couldn’t afford Brown so went to back-up because it was all I could afford. Didn’t love my school, but it was a good education which set me up for success in law school.
It makes me very happy that both my kids loved their schools and their college experience, even with finances/merit search setting the parameters on where they could apply.
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I did as well. For sure.
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I graduated from a small private high school in Memphis in 1994. We were required to take the ACT and SAT. I got a. 31/1300 and was NMF. I also took eight APs by the time I graduated Chemistry and Physics kicked my butt. My family toured fifteen schools. Basically, if we were on vacation and there was a school nearby, we toured. I applied to eight schools: Harvard, Yale, Rice, Emory, Tulane, SMU, Georgia, and Vanderbilt. I refused to go to Vandy, but my dad required that I apply. I got pretty good with a typewriter that he brought home from work. I got into every school except Harvard and Rice (wait-listed). Yale gave me $600/year in aid. SMU gave me a Hunt scholarship (coupled with outside scholarships it was free). I found out my parents had no college savings and planned on scholarships. After many sleepless nights, I chose SMU. I really wanted Yale. But, I couldn’t justify the cost. In retrospect it was the right decision. It led to a Fulbright, Georgetown Law, and my own small law firm.
S22 is also an NMF. He beat me on the ACT. He is at Alabama on an amazing scholarship. D24 is NM Commended. She beat me on the ACT. Not sure where she will go yet.
Suffice to say, wife and I have saved as much as possible for our kids (still not enough).
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Mid70s grad from small town rural HS. Other than the big guidebook and writing away for brochures, no assistance at all from school or parents other than general emotional support. I ended up choosing the school I attended because I liked the look of the campus … which I never visited.
In contrast, H graduated from a specialized urban public HS and his application process was more similar to today. He toured campuses in the region, applied to multiple schools, did interviews, etc.
Neither of us took SAT Prep classes but we both had the workbooks. I’m pretty sure he was more diligent in preparing than I was.
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The biggest difference was the freedom of choice. My parents would pay for a state university but not a private university. I could have gone to a private u if I paid for it or I could have attended a local commuter school and gotten a car. My kids could choose the undergrad colleges of their choice with no such constraint.
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DH and I went to high school in Southern California. He applied to a couple of local state colleges but wasn’t accepted so he went to community college and transferred after 2 years to UCSD.
I was the first in my family to go to a university. My parents were surprisingly helpful with the process. They got me a test prep class for the SAT. I applied to three schools, all UC’s and we visited two of the three. I attended the one closest to home (UCSD) so I could live at home and avoid loans. DH also lived at home and commuted. We commuted together for three years, but that was an hour commute each way. I also went in undeclared and chose the college at UCSD with most gen Ed requirements so I could sample everything before deciding.
I definitely wanted our kids to have the opportunity to live on campus but cost and avoiding debt was a thing. That hasn’t changed.
All the kids took a far more rigorous high school schedule than I had. I don’t think I knew what an AP class was. They had far more standardized tests. Far more. All took both SAT and ACT, and two of them took one a second time. They applied to five, ten, and four schools. The one that applied to ten was looking for full tuition at an LAC. We did a lot of travel for visits, scholarship interviews, auditions. I did a ton of research to help them find good fits, within our budget… They all ended up at great fit schools, within our budget, all at least 1000 miles from home.
The process was much more intense, and stressful, and expensive.
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Those guidebooks were everything!
My dh had a really different experience than I did. Neither of his parents had been to college and he was the oldest, so first in his family to attend. His parents were incredibly supportive and frugal. He was able to go away to a private school for music performance completely debt free because of his parents, who worked so hard to make that happen for all 3 of their kids. He basically applied to Berklee College of Music and Hartt, got in to Berklee, and that was that.
I ended up majoring in Art, and my mom was not super happy about it at all. I always admired my in laws for supporting dh no matter what he wanted to study. Trying to emulate that with my boys.
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I graduated a diocesan (catholic) HS in the late 1980s. I think I was a B/B+ student and I took SAT once and got a 1060 (Math stopped making sense in 10th grade). I thought I wanted to be a physical therapist, which limited where I could go, so did not apply to the local Catholic colleges. I had spent time at Drexel and volunteered at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. I visited University of Scranton, BU and Northeastern. Never finished the Scranton application. Wanted BU. BU accepted me into Basic Studies (they have a different name for this program now, but basically told my folks that some kids need a bridge to college…I was insulted.). Northeastern wanted me so that’s where I ended up, but I changed my major to psychology after Freshman year, which irritated my parents as I could have studied that closer to home.
DS 2023 applied to 10 schools, including NU, but doubt he will get in there. We visited NU and two others before applications. Will visit the rest when all decisions are in.
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I almost didn’t get my acceptance. I was coming home from school and noticed a wet mushy mess in the driveway. Apparently the mailman dropped it on the ground and then it snowed. I found it when the snow melted.
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Raises hand. I only applied to our state flagship.
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In 1969 I applied to 4 colleges: Northeastern, BU, BC and UMass Amherst. I only applied to UMass because back then it was free app if you lived in state. Visited Northeastern, BU and BC on what is now the MBTA Green line. Actually, as the trolley was passing by BU my mom told me it was time to get off. I said “This is BU?” and decided just to ride out to BC instead. Accepted at all four.
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I grew up in Boston and was determined to leave, only to transfer home and finish up at UMass Boston. Worked out pretty well—met my husband.
(And I would have kept going on that trolley as well!)