As a mom, the one thing that drives me crazy....

HPuck35
Wed, 23 Oct 2013 03:29:09 +0000

A friend of mine stated that it would be harder to get into a selective school today than it was when we went to college. I did a little research, nothing formal, and came up with some interesting info.


The SAT test scales were changed in 1996. A perfect 1600 on the new scale would have been only about a 1510 on the old scale. (Obviously before the writing section was added making a perfect score to be 2400 now).
The birth rates vary and go in cycles (baby boomers!!). The number of 18 year olds today is about the same as when I was applying to college.
The number of foreign students coming to study in the US is less these days, post 9/11. I believe this is due to the US government restrictions (but I could be wrong, didn’t research it a whole lot). {my college was about 40% foreign students in my day while it is about 10% today. At the same time the freshman class size has increased about 10%. So the number of admits for US students is much greater than it was in my day. Foreign students do have it much tougher.}
I applied to 2 schools, my dream school and a safety. My son applied to 6, my daughter 8.
Students are much more willing to attend a college far away while they tended to remain somewhat local in my day. This makes the pool of potential applications larger for a specific college.
There are many more opportunities to develop scholastically/academically today than there were in my day. {My HS offered NO AP classes, they were just starting to a few years after I graduated.} This makes even some average students look better today than the old days.


So what does all this mean?

The low admit numbers are a result of the larger numbers of applications that each student puts out. It may be harder to stand out from the crowd but the top students will almost always stand out. Therefore, I believe it is no harder today to get into a good college.