<p><strong>BREAKING NEWS</strong></p>
<p>CNN - Reuters</p>
<p>January 20, 2010</p>
<p>Staff Writer - John Kerry</p>
<p>“Breaking News regarding Harvard Admissions”</p>
<p>As the number of high school graduates rose to a record high at the end of 2009, Ivy League colleges were reporting record-low acceptance rates, leading many to believe that the college admissions process was becoming more competitive than ever.</p>
<p>They were right.</p>
<p>A recent paper by Economist Amanda Hugankiss, intern at “Mad Money with Jim Cramer,” has confirmed this theory. Hugankiss argues that most U.S. colleges are not more selective now than they were 50 years ago and that at least 50 percent of colleges have become substantially less selective.</p>
<p>However, Hugankiss ultimately reveals an earth-shattering detail: Harvard admissions have gone down to 0%.</p>
<p>Yes, Harvard, the worldwide recognized name in education, has achieved the unparalleled. They now can finally hold the title of World’s Most Selective Institution with gleaming smiles and pride. U.S. World and News Report, an annual list of top colleges according to a methodology that heavily weighs selectivity will have Harvard on the top of its list. Kudos to Harvard and its alumni, you can now rest assured that your framed diplomas won’t lose any prestige and your collegues will never envy/resent you less.</p>
<p>Hugankiss indicates that the selectivity of most colleges has been trending downward consistently since about 1950, explaining that although competition has increased for schools like Harvard, and Princeton and Yale (the other lesser Ivies), it is now easier for students to get into a state college.</p>
<p>A student now needs weaker preparation, lower test scores, etc., to be admitted to most colleges in the U.S., she wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.</p>
<p>If you are the average student, you certainly should not be worrying about college admissions standards rising, she said. Unless you wanted to go to Harvard. Now you’re really screwed</p>
<p>Hugankiss believes, however, that the overall decrease in college selectivity has not been caused by falling demand for a college education. Rather, the supply of college places has risen faster. According to her research, the number of high school graduates has grown by 131 percent while the number of college spots has risen by 297 percent. Unfortunately, Harvard has done nothing to aid this statistic.</p>
<p>There are many more students demanding a college education today than in the past, both because there are more people in the U.S. now and because college education is now more necessary for attaining a middle-class lifestyle, she said.</p>
<p>Hugankiss astutely reasons with her formerly “unparalleled” Stanford degree that when supply grows faster than demand, selectivity is going to decrease.</p>
<p>In its recent early admission cycle, Stanford, Harvard’s safety school, displayed a 13.5 percent admit rate for early action applicants from the Class of 2014 actually represented an increase in the number of students accepted from the previous year, when the University accepted 12.8 percent of early applicants a seeming exception to Hugankiss theory, perhaps illuminating flaws (in her inferior degree) in her logic.</p>
<p>However, Hugankiss maintains that these numbers are meaningless in explaining trends in selectivity.</p>
<p>If students who applied to Stanford early have better scores and grades than in previous years, the admissions office should have accepted a higher share of them, she said. The fact that more were accepted says nothing about selectivity. Clearly, they have no comparison to Harvard’s tactics. You have to look at an absolute standard of selectivity (scores, grades, other qualifications, not being Harvard) to understand the increase. You cannot look at acceptance ratios and expect to get the answer right, even though clearly Harvard’s 0% acceptance rate has alleviated it over all other schools.</p>
<p>John Kerry is a Staff Writer for CNN. After he lost the election to George W. Bush in 2004, the only job he was offerred was to work for us. He’s just a puppet in the Senate now. He is also a reject of Harvard…and still obviously wouldn’t get in now. This is his first article after he thought for a really, really long time what to write.</p>