<p>and im not just talking during the years with the nighest number of HS grads. i mean it seems society is pushing for these name brand schools. i think it has more to do than with simply a larger population, i think it might be a mindset that people are growing to adopt. ur opinions?</p>
<p>My theory is that since America is getting dumber by the day, the sparse number of students who aren't dumb are trying harder and harder to separate themselves from the pack.</p>
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i think it has more to do with simply a larger population
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<p>I didn't know the population of the US goes up by 5-10% every year. My personal opinion is the can-do spirit of the US is gone and people are increasingly relying upon names/connections to get places whereas our grandparents (I totally blame the baby boomers for this mess) got by just fine in life without college educations but with a strong work ethic.</p>
<p>^^also to continue on that point maybe todays world demands an advanced knowledge of certain topics. i mean you cant make decent contributions to the academic world nowadays without a college education (not like back then with all of the self educated men)</p>
<p>I think it really has to do with prestige. In all honesty I somewhat wanted to go away for college but I had reservations about going to a "no-name" school, but it seems that name schools kind of have a safety net with prestige you know. It might not make alot of sense, but for me the big names (and the BIG financial aid) made applying to the ivies really easy.
I really do think that our society has slowly deteriorated in the work ethic category. I mean to be succesful in high school (and by that I mean 3.8+) it does not require intelligence just pure hard work. And the fact that so few ppl pursue technical fields inclines me to think that americans are shying away from hard work (as evidenced by my reluctance to go into chemical engineering although it seems interesting).</p>
<p>Here's the FAQ: </p>
<p>DEMOGRAPHICS </p>
<p>Population trends in the United States are not the only issue influencing the competitiveness of college admission here. The children already born show us what the expected number of high school students are in various years, but the number of high school students in the United States, which is expected to begin declining in a few years, isn't the whole story. </p>
<p>First of all, if more students who begin high school go on to college, there will be more applicants to college even with a declining number of high school students. And that is the trend in the United States and worldwide. </p>
<p>Second, colleges in the United States accept applications from all over the world, so it is quite possible that demographic trends in the United States will not be the main influence on how many students apply to college. The cohorts of high-school-age students are still increasing in size in some countries (NOT most of Europe). </p>
<p>Third, even if the number of applicants to colleges overall stays the same, or even declines, the number of applicants to the most competitive colleges may still increase. The trend around the world is a "flight to quality" of students trying to get into the best college they can in increasing numbers, and increasing their consensus about which colleges to put at the top of their application lists. I do not expect college admission to be any easier for my youngest child than for my oldest child, even though she is part of a smaller birth cohort in the United States. </p>
<p>And now I would add to this that at the very most selective colleges that have just announced new financial aid plans, next year's (and the following year's) crush of applicants will be larger than ever. When colleges that are already acknowledged to be great colleges start reducing their net cost down to what the majority of families in the United States can afford, those colleges will receive more applications from all parts of the United States, and very likely from all over the world. </p>
<p>The Economist magazine published a brief article about these trends in April 2008. </p>
<p>University</a> admissions in America | Accepted | The Economist</p>
<p>-US demographics
-Growing interest from internationals
-New financial aid initiatives
-They are reaching out to low income</p>
<p>^^Thanks for consolidating that.</p>
<p>it cant be all demographics..........................</p>