<p>Being in the top 2% of a high school class was easier for elite students in 1995 than it was in 2010. Consider that in 1995 there were fewer magnet schools than there are today. College-bound students in high school are pressured more and more into competitive schools. Perhaps this has not changed much for boarding schools or elite private schools, but the presence of magnet schools, IB schools, and so on in the public school system means that fewer high-caliber public school students are going to be in the top 2% of their class. Students that would have been the valedictorian at their local public school instead went to a competitive magnet and didn’t even graduate in the top 2%.</p>
<p>I think the average SAT is more telling. It’s not a huge jump and, in fact, the national average jumped on the whole by about 15 points in that same timeframe. The increase for Swarthmore is marginally higher than that. So, either the SAT is getting easier or students are getting better at taking it. I suspect the latter.</p>
<p>I do believe students at elite colleges are more competent overall than they were 10 or 20 years ago. Acceptance rates have plummeted across the board, reflecting an increased push for students to attend college, a bigger overall population of students applying, and easier college admissions procedures. The latter is the only factor that doesn’t point toward a more elite body of students.</p>
<p>Consider that the population of the United States (which is where most Swarthmore students are from) has increased about 250,000,000 in 1990 to 310,000,000 in 2010. The Census Department further claims that there were 12.1 million people between 14 and 24 years old enrolled in college in the US in 2009. In 1997 this figure was 9.2 million. In this same time period, Swarthmore’s enrollment increased only marginally. It stands to reason that, with Swarthmore’s relatively constant enrollment, its diminished acceptance rate, and the growing population of the United States, that students who do make it in are more competitive overall and competent overall. A lot of people who got accepted back in the day simply wouldn’t make the cut today. They’d be at Haverford.</p>