<p>It seems like every year admissions into college gets more and more competitive. Especially this year when the economy is really bad.When do you guys think it will stop being this way? </p>
<p>And if you can answer this:</p>
<p>How were the acceptance rates of good colleges back in the day as compared to now?</p>
<p>The simple answer is never.</p>
<p>^ Maybe, but the real answer (based on statistics) is NEXT YEAR.</p>
<p>I just HAD to get stuck with the peak year in competitiveness, didn’t I? Way to go, self.</p>
<p>Why is this year more competitive than next year?</p>
<p>cuz 09 is so fine.</p>
<p>^ probably number class slogan in the country haha.</p>
<p>But, idk. America’s education rates have basically been increasing since day 1. Eventually we have to peak, right? But I can’t see it really going down.</p>
<p>Never. It’ll get so competitive, NOBODY can get into college.
But I believe sometime around 2011 the numbers will get a little less brutal… but only a little.</p>
<p>there will be less seniors applying to colleges next year. The best time to go to apply to college was between 1975 and 1995. Some of the statistics were insane (copypasted from outside sources):</p>
<p>1970: University of Pennsylvania: 70% Acceptance Rate
~1995: University of Chicago: 68% Acceptance Rate
~1998: George Washington University: 80% Acceptance Rate</p>
<p>In 1976, for the class of 1980, Yale accepted 26.4% of their applicants</p>
<p>From my dog-eared 1997 edition of USN&WR. SAT scores were the recentered (current) scale.</p>
<p>Yale 20% Admission Rate 1350-1550 25th-75th percentile SAT range
Columbia 24% Admitted 1341-1438 Range
Penn 33% Admitted 1370-1440 Range
WashU 56% Admitted 1180-1380 Range
USC 70% Admitted 1070-1310 Range
Chicago 71% Admitted 1270-1470 Range</p>
<p>The people who don’t understand why '09 is statistically the hardest obviously haven’t read a newspaper for the past year…</p>
<p>Ever heard of the Baby Boomers? Yeah, well, we’re their kids.
After this year, like Tboonepickens said, the # of applicants goes down. It’s a giant bell curve, and we’re at the peak.</p>
<p>Less applicants = easier to get in, because schools almost always accept close to the same # of students.</p>
<p>This year, Harvard is expecting 30,000+ to apply. It won’t be near that next year.</p>
<p>Why so brutal ??? Aren’t ourselves involve in this current admissions process? We are the reason why it is so competitive this year :)</p>
<p>We’re the tail end of the baby boomers’ kids, so after this year it will begin to go down. The difference probably won’t be too significant, but in theory the number of applicants should go down a bit.</p>
<p>It will be less brutal in about 1955.</p>
<p>^ lmao
However, if you’re a girl planning on applying to Harvard at that point, you’re screwed :)</p>
<p>There will be lots of colleges that become less competitive as the rates of US stduents of college age drops. It peaks this year.</p>
<p>The top colleges will probably stay as competitive as they are now because of increased global interest.</p>
<p>I think as the interest in higher education in the U. S becomes more global the applicant pool will remain as large because of an increase in international applicants.</p>
<p>It’s not necessarily true that “[l]less applicants = easier to get in, because schools almost always accept close to the same number of students”.</p>
<p>The quality of the applicant pool matters as well.</p>
<p>In 1976, before SAT scores were re-centered, the 25th-75th percentile rankings for matriculated students at Yale were 610-720. <a href=“http://www.yale.edu/oir/book_numbers_updated/D8_SAT_Scores_1975_99.pdf[/url]”>http://www.yale.edu/oir/book_numbers_updated/D8_SAT_Scores_1975_99.pdf</a></p>
<p>Re-centered, that would be the equivalent of today’s 670-790. [SAT</a> I Individual Score Equivalents](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/sat/equivalence-tables/sat-score]SAT”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board)</p>
<p>The class that entered in 2006 had 25th-75th percent scores of 700-790. That’s the equivalent of pre-centered scores of 640-720.
[Factsheet</a> – Statistical Summary of Yale University](<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/oir/facts06.html#Statistics%20on%20Current%201995%20Freshmen%20Class]Factsheet”>http://www.yale.edu/oir/facts06.html#Statistics%20on%20Current%201995%20Freshmen%20Class)</p>
<p>This means the scores have improved at the bottom quarter of the class, but have remained unchanged for the top quarter.</p>
<p>When I was applying to college, studying for the SATs was uncommon. Most people took it a single time, without studying for it. </p>
<p>Students also applied to far fewer schools in those days. I applied to three, which was about average.</p>
<p>The yield hasn’t changed much at Yale, but I suspect it has for schools further down in the pecking order. Students can still only attend one school at a time, typically.</p>
<p>i read in a report that 1991 (the year applying to college now) had the largest birthrate in the world ever.
also, with all the applications online and usually on the commonapp, applying to many schools has become very commonplace. the numbers are partially artificially inflated because a student of high caliber may get into many schools, but in the end can only choose one.</p>
<p>Though perhaps this year has the highest number of students in high school, doesn’t it make sense that the number of people applying to selective schools will continue to increase as people continue to be taught the value of higher education? If that is true, next year will not be easier even if there are less seniors, because more of them are applying.</p>
<p>Also, this year our class size (and last year’s class) have The biggest population size. the early 90’s were a big jump because the baby boomers were getting old and realized they needed to nave kids (the younger of the baby boom generation) and The oldest of the baby boom had already had children and they were m their Lo’s, staring to make a family. So a lot of us were born at once, even without the economy and current education trends of more games for higher, this was already predicted to be a tough year. And then those other factors added to it. oh joy!!</p>
<p>Awareness is not going to stop, neither is competition. I would have NEVER EVER in a million years applied to the top schools I’m applying to if it weren’t for CC. People are acknowledging that you don’t have to be a 4.0/2400 to get into top schools, so more people are giving it a shot. Sites like this that encourage high school students to chat about college are quite the double edged swords.</p>