'Chance' a Parent........

[CDK]

My time on CC has made it obvious that things have changed drastically from the era when I applied to college. So, I was thinking...how would I do in the application process now compared to how I did in 1986?

Here is my profile from the fall of 1985, applying to colleges:

Male, white, middle class, upstate NY (near Albany)
Small (almost rural) public high school, rarely sent top grads to elite colleges
Rank #1/104 (...and that was 3 towns combined !!)
AP courses : 0 !!! Not offered. I did take the most 'rigorous' classes- NYS regents.
Sports: Varsity soccer 9, 10; varsity football 11,12 (co-captain)
UWGPA: 4.0 (or dang near)
SAT: M 730, V 610 (never even knew you could take a 'prep course' or that you could retake the SAT...)
I took some subject tests, but I cannot recall them, except Spanish 680
Extracurriculars: weak...Spanish Club 4 years, President 12, took educational trip to Spain in 10th grade. Sports as above. Partying with friends.
I worked 20 hours per week starting in 10th grade at a retail store.
Letters of rec: Should be very good...teachers tended to like me despite my sarcasm......

So, get in your Way Back machine....chance me THEN and NOW for these schools:

Harvard, Brown, U Penn, Georgetown, WPI, SUNY-Stony Brook

[Pizzagirl]

I bet you got in all of them back in the day :-). I hear you; I had great grades but "eh" extracurriculars and a non-notable after-school job, and I got into all 3 of the top 20 schools I applied to and didn't break a sweat. It was so different then!!

[marite]

CDK:

The SAT was recentered in 1995. Your M-730 would stay the same but your V-610 would become 670 You'd have a chance at all. The 20 hours a week job would flag you as a desirable lower SES applicant and make up for some deficiencies in your record, unless you included partying as one of your ECS!

[mathmom]

I'd say you got in everywhere, except perhaps Harvard, though your chances should have been decent there too.

Here are my stats:
School: small (80 in graduating class) private girl's boarding school that sent a dozen or so girls to seven sisters, the Ivy's went co-ed the year before I graduated
GPA: B+ to A- (more A's last couple of years)
Rank: none, but probably top 10% maybe 5%, really have no idea
SAT1: 740V, 730M (BTW that verbal score is 800 recentered, math unchanged)
SAT2: 790 Math2, 720 or so World or Euro. History (can't remember), 680 Writing
Senior year APs: English, Calculus BC, Art, European History
ECs: Gold Award Girl Scouts, Saturday art classes at Corcoran, yearbook and newspaper senior year, played recorder in a small group
Sports: Modern Dance last three years (JV)

I applied to Harvard, Brown, Barnard and U. Penn.

[CDK]

mathmom....I would say the same about your chances ... in everywhere, except possibly Harvard (but I think >50% chance, and better than mine...).

I will post my acceptances Monday....

[Booklady]

Here are mine (1975):

School: small (44 in graduating class) private girls' school in New York City
GPA: B+/A-
Rank: none, but probably top 10-15%
SAT I: 750V, 710M
SAT II (or Achievement Tests as they were called then):
MathII: 800
French: 770
English: 740
Chem: 730 (I can't believe I actually saved this stuff!)

APs: Calc BC, Biology, French, Chem

No sports (other than mandatory gym), no ECs...my friends and I spent our time going to lots of movies, theater, concerts, etc. I don't think any of us did anything organized outside of school.

We were allowed to apply to three colleges, and mine were Princeton, Harvard, and Wellesley, which was my safety.

[rrah]

Gosh, you're all making me feel like a real goofball....

I don't recall my SAT scores, but know they weren't that high...probably in the 1200's I do recall my GPA--3.8 I also took 2 college classes while a SR. and earned A's in each. (an extension campus of the state U.)

Few EC's, worked a lot, and took care of younger sibs.

I was a typical first generation college student. My HS GC was of absolutely no help and never mentioned that some schools gave out scholarships for high scores. Never mentioned that a private school might have been as affordable as the state public. I recall being so intrigued by a couple of them, but never applied because I didn't think it was possible. GC never mentioned you could retake the SAT. (I recall I was about 20 points away from a scholarship at the state U.) A scholarship would have helped tremendously as a I was definitely lower, middle income.

I applied to 3 state schools. Accepted at all 3.

That might all sound a bit bitter, but it's not my intention. If I hadn't gone to the state U, that I loved btw, I never would have met my H, never would have the 2 great children we have, so many nevers....

[wisteria]

Important factors to take into account:

demographics: Birth cohorts peaked at around 42 million babies per year in the late 50s when some of the older cc parents were born but dropped to 35 million in the late 60s and fell to 31 million by the early 70s when the youngest cc parents were born.

gender factors: Even when the Ivy League went coed in the late 60s, admissions did not become gender-blind until some years later.

[entomom]

Profile from 1969:

Lower-middle class suburb in the San Fernando Valley of LA.
Public high school, claim to infamy: only non-inner city school in the LA school district to lose accreditation in 1970.
Rank: who knows (graduated in 3.5 years because I had enough credits and they let me out).
AP courses: 0
Sports: 0
UWGPA: Don't know, probably B to B-
SAT: never took it
Extracurriculars: part-time work at KFC

What do you think my chances were???

Attended CCC for one year, got a D and a few Bs and dropped out.
Worked for a year.
Went back to CCC and finished 2 years of coursework with an 4.0.
Transferred to UCB for my BA.
Went on to earn a MS and PhD.

[CDK]

Booklady...I will say that you got accepted to all 3....

entomom...never took the SAT? wow... and still finished UCB, and got PhD....wow... your chances were nil. what do you attribute this to?

[DonnaL]

My "stats" were pretty similar to, but not actually as good as, my son's, I think.

High school Class of 1972. Private high school in New York City.

Grades, about an A- average, top 15-20% of the class.

4 AP courses, one my junior year (US History), three my senior year (European History, English Literature, French Language) -- 4 in French, 5's in the others.

SAT's, 740 verbal, 740 math.

SAT II's (then called Achievement tests), US History 800, English Lit 800, French 760, Math I 680.

Extracurriculars -- not much, just the Debating team.

But I applied to only six schools, all Ivies -- Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, and Penn. I got into Yale (where I went), Columbia, and Penn, was rejected at Harvard and Brown (I didn't expect to get into either), and was waitlisted at Princeton (I'm still waiting to hear from them -- it's only been 36 years!) I remember strongly considering applying to both Swarthmore and the U. of Chicago (I even had an interview at Swarthmore), but didn't actually apply to either.

If I'd been applying this past year, I don't know if I would have gotten into any of those schools. I certainly would have had to widen my net quite a bit!

My son, with similar grades and slightly better test scores, and way more impressive extracurriculars, was admitted to the U. of Chicago (where he'll be going), Johns Hopkins, Macalester, Rutgers, and Sarah Lawrence, and was rejected at Yale.

Donna

[Pizzagirl]

We were allowed to apply to three colleges, and mine were Princeton, Harvard, and Wellesley, which was my safety.

My family lived in St. Louis at the time (though we were originally from the east coast), so I chose Wash U as my safety.

And (shhh, don't tell anyone applying to Penn these days) ...
I was very interested in both Penn (Wharton) and a particular program at NU. I ultimately decided I was more interested in the NU program. But, I had a boyfriend (a year older than me) that my parents didn't like, who was going to NU. I knew my parents would think that I was going to NU because of him, even though I knew I wasn't, and so I decided to sabotage my Penn application by leaving blank a particular required essay. Not only did I get into Wharton, I got into an honors program.

[HeliMomNYC]

I graduated in 1974, from a small-town HS in New Mexico, where we moved halfway through my senior year. The rest of my HS was in a small town in Florida. (My mother was two years into a second marriage that folded in 1977.)

SAT: Verbal 770 (I understand this would be 800 with recentering)
Math 570 (I bet no matter how much this is recentered it would still bite.) I only took it once, with no prep. Nobody prepped where I came from. Or took SAT IIs.

AP courses: 1, in History.
GPA: As in everything except (go figure) Math, which I dropped after Geometry in 10th grade, and from which I am still trying to recover.

ECs: Contributed to the literary magazine in both schools, hospital volunteer for two years.

I didn't know anything about schools. My guidance counselor told me to learn to type. I went to technical school and everything turned out well, but I am so very glad my S (and all your Ds) live in this world and not that one.

[Booklady]

Booklady...I will say that you got accepted to all 3....

Got into Wellesley and Princeton (my first choice) and was wait-listed at Harvard. Didn't bother to wait, since I was in love with Princeton from the moment I first visited. I think it helped that I was female, as Princeton was in the early years of co-education and was trying to equalize the numbers. The ratio was 3:1 men:women when I got there, which was quite a treat coming from an all-girls' school!

[Pizzagirl]

I didn't know anything about schools. My guidance counselor told me to learn to type. I went to technical school and everything turned out well, but I am so very glad my S (and all your Ds) live in this world and not that one.

I had a year of typing and a half year of home ec / cooking on my transcript since my school didn't offer any other alternatives for freshmen who weren't in band / orchestra / choir. And *no one* took the SAT twice -- taking the SAT twice had the stigma of "you were so stupid, you needed another chance"!