<p>30 years ago, were college admissions this competitive? Was UCB's acceptance rate still hovering around the 20% marker? Is it just massive growth and immigration that has made the system what it is today?</p>
<p>Generally, college admissions were much less competitive 30 years ago because the applicant pools were so much smaller, and it wasn't necessarily thought of as necessary to get a job, like it is now. If you want some more information about this, I'd advise going to the parents' forum.</p>
<p>US population went up 100 million between 1967 and 2007 (200M-300M)</p>
<p>More females attend college now.</p>
<p>Colleges (at least top private ones) are focusing on international recruitment.</p>
<p>States (Texas as an example) are instigating programs to give spots to lesser qualified applicants putting the displaced students into the private college pool of applicants and making it harder for B students of college prepatory HS to get into state schools.</p>
<p>State schools are raising their prices so there is less difference in public and non-exclusive private school's tuition.</p>
<p>Common apps made it easy to apply to a large number of schools which can result in the appearance of demand more greatly exceeding supply than may truly be the case.</p>
<p>When I was a kid, we had to walk ten miles in the snow to apply to college.</p>
<p>When I was a kid, college was the last, best draft deferment.</p>
<p>Lol okay, thanks for the replies</p>
<p>my dad went to BC. his roommate there realized around March of his senior year that he needed to get going on this whole college thing, so he had his guidance counselor call up the admissions office there. the guidance counselor told admissions this kid was a pretty good student, nice guy, and a good lacrosse player (back when BC still had men's lacrosse). he was accepted and attended.</p>
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When I was a kid, we had to walk ten miles in the snow to apply to college.
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:D :D :D :D</p>
<p>Back 30 years ago, if you had a 1400+ on the SAT, you were pretty much in @ the Ivy League. Well, this was back when Upenn was a safety school for most people w/ a brain, and anyone with a 1200/1600 and decent grades could have gotten into em. </p>
<p>It was a whole diff. world back then...think, Al Gore, being in the bottom 30% of his class and with a 1400 or so SAT, got into Harvard, the ONLY SCHOOL HE APPLIED TO, because he was like "pfft, harvard, its so easy to get into!"</p>
<p>Wow. If only... lol</p>
<p>I wonder what it will be, 30 years down the road.</p>
<p>Genetically modified humans with 250 IQs?</p>
<p>I'm still getting over the "BC doesn't have men's lacrosse anymore"....In my previous life, everyone I knew who worked as traders on Wall Street played lacrosse at BC.(and grew up in the same town on LI)....It was like a "right of passage"......too funny!!</p>
<p>dayum, its due to baby boomers being laid CONSTANTLY, reproducing like chickens... crazy</p>
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When I was a kid, we had to walk ten miles in the snow to apply to college.
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<p>Uphill both ways? =P</p>
<p>yeah, increase in population + higher % of population going to college = cut-throat competition</p>
<p>Except 30 years ago getting a 1400 on the SAT was a challenge, and the SAT was an intelligence test</p>
<p>Don't forget that they re-scaled the SAT in the 90's; scores from the 60's are 70's are considerably higher than they sound today.</p>
<p>Al Gore was the son of a U.S. senator when he applied to Harvard, his father's alma mater. His son was also admitted to Harvard a few years back with less-than-impressive grades and SAT scores; that doesn't mean it's easy to get into Harvard. </p>
<p>It's also misleading to compare the percentage of applicants admitted to schools in earlier decades with the percentages admitted today. Applicants applied to far fewer schools in the seventies, before the advent of the Internet, the Common Application, or word processing software. Students were also less likely to prepare for the SATs, or to sit for more than two administrations of the test. </p>
<p>It's also misleading to compare the U.S. population in 1967 with the current population without looking closely at changing demographics. Much of that population increase has to do with increases in longevity, and immigration of older people who never entered the market for U.S. colleges. There were more births in the U.S. in 1957, for example, than there were in 1990.</p>
<p>When I plug my re-centered SAT scores and my class rank into the Academic Index page on this web site, I come up with a 213; on Dartmouth's scale, that gives me a five out of nine, according to "A is for Admission." Dartmouth accepted half of the 6s, and 11% of the 4s. </p>
<p>I applied to three Ivy League schools in the 70s; Princeton and Yale rejected me, and Cornell (CAS) accepted me.</p>
<p>My dad, class of 1954, used to joke about his undergrad grades being so bad that he had to go to law school. As a teen, I remember finding some of his old grade cards and it was true!</p>
<p>We should really feel sorry for all the little brothers and sisters that will be applying in two years, because isn't that when the number of college applicants peeks?</p>
<p>25 years ago my S applied to college and this year my D (yes not in college in the same century). I can assure you it was not this competitive. SAT I's in 1400 range were fine for competitive schools (He got into Penn, MIT, Wait Listed at Columbia, got in, and rejected from Y& P, only applied to 5 schools, so in 3/5 and graduated from Penn's M&T program [dual degree Wharton & Engineering). Not much in the way of EC's. Did not think about it until first semester of senior year. D on the other hand, thinking about it since first semester of Jr year, has EC's better scores, and a couple of hooks. S marvels at what his sister is going through.</p>
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<p>Back 30 years ago, if you had a 1400+ on the SAT, you were pretty much in @ the Ivy League.</p>
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<p>Well, I'm going to disagree with everyone else :-) I went to a public high school for gifted students about 25 years ago. It was public - free - so folks from all sorts of socio-economic backgrounds went there. Nearly everyone had over a 1400, several had 1600s. The students ended up going to college everywhere, but I remember very few getting into an Ivy. Might have had something to do with the region of the country, though the Ivy's did send recruiters to our school.</p>
<p>My senior year was a lot like my son's - frantic, tons of apps, hard decisions. </p>
<p>One thing that has drastically improved is financial aid at the Ivys. I decided to go with my father's state college alma mater - they offered me a four year full ride instead of the Ivy that would have impoverished my family. The Ivy's are much, much more accessible to middle class kids now.</p>
<p>Well then the people from your school could probably have gotten into the Ivies, but could never have paid for it...</p>
<p>My mom had a 1590 on her SATs. She went an interviewed at The College of Insurance (now a part of St. John's-Queens, NY) and they took one look at her SATs and grades and accepted her. She was a junior; she went right to college, and never actually graduated from HS. She thinks she could have gotten into Penn, and it would have been her top choice, but her parents would have had to sell their house and live in a box to pay. My aunt, who was similar to my mom, applied to Princeton as the salutatorian a public NYC non-magnet HS with a 1400-ish SAT score and next-to-no ECs and got in, but, like my mom, couldn't pay for it and also went to The College of Insurance (which had a really great work-study program, apparently). Someone with my aunt's resume would never have gotten into Princeton today...</p>
<p>(Damn you, lack of financial aid at the Ivies! You denied me legacy! :))</p>