<p>The admissions rate for my class was probably a little over 3x the current admissions rate at my alma mater.</p>
<p>A few years ago, I came across the “summer supplement” to my high school yearbook which listed the college plans of all of my classmates. (My school sent about 97% to 4-year colleges.) I saw that several of my classmates who had not particularly distinguished themselves academically (I don’t remember them being in honors classes–and we had only one section of each honors class, so if they’d been in honors classes, I would have seen them) had gone to Northwestern, Georgetown, and other “top” schools. Kids that I remembered as not academically-oriented at all had gone to George Washington, Villanova, Skidmore, F&M, etc.</p>
<p>When I embarked on the college search process with my HS Class of 2011 daughter, my impressions of the selectivity and quality of various schools were based on my recollections of the people that I knew who attended those schools 30 years ago. Obviously, my impressions required substantial revision in light of today’s realities.</p>
<p>Graduated in 1981 and applied to one school UCLA (I listed UCSB and UCSD as alternate choices on the application). I had a 3.6 GPA (no AP classes then so no such thing as a GPA over 4.0) and an SAT score of 1100. What a difference going through this with my two kids. I think my parents’ only involvement was writing the check.</p>
<p>I didn’t have stats like the kids getting into my state flagship have now, but I was in the top 5% of my class, so I got in with no problem. That school was the only one I applied to, I didn’t study for the SAT (and didn’t know anyone else who did), and it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be accepted.</p>
<p>I was one of those odd ducks who did study for the SAT, by doing practice tests and learning vocab. Scored 1300 out of 1600. I was in the top 10% of my excellent HS class. Accepted at Northwestern, Wash U St. Louis, Univ of Rochester. Many of my friends went to Brown, Harvard, Princeton, U Penn, Dartmouth, Tufts, Columbia. </p>
<p>My DH was accepted at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, Williams and Univ of Rochester (safety). </p>
<p>Either we’re really awesome people or things were easier then. I think I know the right answer . . .</p>
<p>Only applied to our state flagship U and also one OOS flagship U as a transfer. Got into both with LOTS of merit aid. Was an excellent student in HS & college. Didn’t study for SAT & got decent but not exceptional scores.</p>
<p>One sib applied for and got into Stanford as an entering freshman but dad said too expensive, so he reapplied and got into Stanford as a transfer after a 3 semesters at state flagship. Dad let him go. He was a top student in public HS (but not val) & college, but didn’t cure cancer. He was one of Stanford’s top grads. His S was the val at his elite private HS, but did NOT get into Stanford. He also has not cured cancer. I think it was easier 30-40 years ago than now.</p>
<p>Many Stanford alum friends have kids with better HS records than they ever had but were similarly rejected from Stanford, much to the parents’ anger.</p>
<p>My example also shows the difference! 1984 - top 25% with mostly A’s but no AP or honors classes and didn’t take anything past Alg II sophomore year (no trig or calc), no chem or physics either - super hungover for SAT and got 500 Math, 600 Verbal and didn’t retake.</p>
<p>I had no EC’s by that time as I quit playing soccer (it was outside school as club back then) at ~16. I don’t think they even asked about EC’s but if so, they didn’t care much!</p>
<p>Applied to CU- Boulder, UT-Austin and TAMU - got into all three. I think my stats would have a tough time with any of those today ;)</p>
<p>Don’t remember by gpa or even my SAT, although I was mortified when I found out what I got years later, applying for my MBA. Thank goodness I don’t remember them now either, although sadly I could tell you my kids’ scores. I went to a small LAC and transferred to Syracuse. I remember admissions called me: probably to tell me I got in. My dear Grandmother, the matriarch, answered the phone and put in a good word for me. She swore that’s why I got in, bless her. </p>
<p>1977 alum. Applied to one college, took SAT once. Never visited. Sure was easy back then and my parents were completely out of the loop.</p>
<p>Class rank 55 out of 585, so barely top 10%. SAT 610V/750M, down from my PSAT mostly because one of the cheerleaders sat next to me wearing a tight white sweater and chewed her pencil throughout the test. My one EC was the school newspaper. Other stuff I did, like fly fishing and bicyle racing, weren’t considered ECs at the time since they weren’t varsity sports.</p>
<p>Accepted: RPI, 75% tuition scholarship, Clarkson, 100% tuition.
Rejected: Cornell, no real surprise - it was a reach for EE and I didn’t realize I had to get recommendations.
Waitlisted: Bucknell, probably because of the open contempt I was shown by the alumni interviewing me. I was a downtown kid in cheap clothes, they were a yuppy uptown couple.</p>
<p>This is a fun thread… yeah, Class of '77, SAT 580v/640m for a 1220 - took once, no prep. Ranked 50 out of 270. No AP classes - did they even have them then? Played baseball 4 years. No community service. Applied to Georgetown, GWU, Tufts, BU, and UMass-Amherst, my safety. Got into all but Georgetown. Was ready to commit to Tufts, but at last minute, in the middle of a Boston blizzard, applied to Univ of Ariz, got accepted in two weeks, and went there sight unseen. Walked off the plane onto the tarmac at Tucson Int’l in late August at 3 pm in the afternoon and thought I was going to die. Tuition was only $1500/year as an out of state student, which was a lot less than Tufts. Graduated with a 4.0 and went on to UC-Davis law school.</p>
<p>Consider the increase in the population of high school seniors from a few decades ago to now, and consider that the amount of space in “good” or “desirable” four year colleges has not increased by anywhere near that proportion.</p>
<p>When we were in school, not everyone felt like they needed to or were entitled to go to college. The amount of kids matriculating today has really increased.</p>
<p>I think that the geographic limits that were there in the 70’s and 80’s went away with online information and applications.
I went to an upper-middle class high school near Seattle. The only Ivy League schools I had heard of (other than Harvard, from Love Story) were Yale and Princeton (because my neighbors were from New Jersey…but according to them it was inferior to Rutgers )
It was easier it get in but soooooo much harder to find a school.
I took the SAT once because we were told you “can’t study for it, it’s an Aptitude test”.<br>
At graduation we discovered a little asterisk beside the names of the top 3%. None by mine and my friend beside me…having already received our rank the week before, we used that to calculate the number of our classmates graduating. Really, that’s how unimportant class rank was in our minds. Turns out we were both firmly in the top 5%.
Applied to the few schools that gave merit money that my counselor knew about and the state school as a safety. Got merit money from all but one, picked the best and then visited as an admitted student.
Total costs for my first year - under $5000. At a private that now pushes the high-$50’s envelope.</p>
<p>It was far easier to get into college back when I applied, if for no other reason than the world was a much more limited place then. I think most kids in my high school had heard of the Ivy League, but that just wasn’t part of our world. For us Harvard might as well have been located in France or on Mars. </p>
<p>I went to high school in a small rural town in central Oregon. The entire state was more or less aligned along one end or the other of the Univ. of Oregon vs. Oregon State polarity. If not in reality then in spirit everyone was either a Beaver of a Duck. </p>
<p>Perhaps 25% of my graduating class went on to college, and I bet a good 75% of those who did went to either Oregon or Oregon State. A few went to smaller colleges in state or perhaps in bordering states. Every few years a boy would get into one of the service academies. Our class intellectual, a girl who had been beatnik back in Jr. high and evolved into a Hippie in high school, went away to Macalaster, which I had never heard of (and from there she went to Harvard Law School). </p>
<p>Since our school didn’t offer any AP classes, I had never heard of the concept. I took the SAT exactly once and did not prep for it all. One school I was interested in required the ACT, so my mother had to drive me 60 miles to Bend early one Saturday to take it there since it wasn’t given at any of the high schools in our area.</p>
<p>I was, in general, a B+ student. I don’t remember my SAT or ACT scores, but I guess they were good enough, because I got into all three colleges I applied to. I spent probably all of one or two hours filling out the apps and handwriting my essays directly onto the forms. I don’t remember worrying very much about whether I would get accepted.</p>
<p>I was a member of the Duck faction and thus wanted to go to the Univ. of Oregon. But this was the heart of the Hippie era, and in those days Eugene fancied itself to be a sort of Berkeley-North. My parents refused to pay if I went there, thinking I was sure to become a drug-addled dropout if I did.</p>
<p>AP courses and tests have existed since the 1950s, but the proliferation of a large number of them is a more recent thing. When I was in high school, there were only about seven AP courses, three of which were level 4 or 5 foreign language courses. Someone who took “a lot” of AP tests took perhaps four.</p>
<p>I graduated from UC Berkeley in 1987. I only applied there, as in those days we had “redirection” and if you were not admitted to your top choice campus, you could rank other campuses you wanted the application sent to. My GPA was about a 3.5, with no AP or honors courses. SAT 470 math, 670 English. Decent activities (AFS exchange student, school newspaper, sports). Highest level of math in high school was Algebra II/Trig, a class my kids are now expected to complete by sophomore year. I sent in my application in late November, right before the deadline, and was accepted in about three weeks. Definitely not the same today. Now my kids are in the same high ranking school district I was in (but a different school), and I am very doubtful they could get in, even if they had an interest in going there. Times do change. If I remember correctly, tuition was about $700 per semester as an in-state student.</p>
<p>I graduated in 1973. I didn’t really know what the SAT was but our Counselor said we should take it. There were no SAT classes and we didn’t study. I scored in the low 1500’s and I had a 3.9ish GPA. we didn’t have any AP’s. I only applied to one school- Cal Poly SLO for engineering and I was accepted. I never looked at the campus til the day I moved into the dorms-Yosemite was new. My H went there and it is the only school he applied to also. When I graduated, I believe tuition was around $270 per quarter.</p>
<p>Nearly all my HS peers went to college, but most only applied to and attended our state flagship. My parents allowed each of us go spend at least a term or year at a college on the continental US. We spent a lot more time and effort applying for grad and pro schools than we did with undergrad. I believe I applied to about 7 law schools and got into two and was wait listed at one. Was very happy with my choices. No one helped me figure out anything, I was flying blind. I applied for and got lots of merit awards. No idea how many schools my sibs applied to, but know one sib applied to several med schools and was accepted by all, including ivies. He chose UCSF. I thin k two of my sibs applied to only one masters program (it was OOS flagship). Both were accepted with merit.</p>
<p>I never took the SAT. My mom was widowed when I was 17 but she wasn’t aware of the supports in place to help families like ours.
I did find a job through Job Corps but that was just for the summer.
I didn’t know anyone who went out of state for college & knew very few people who even went to community college.
This was an upscale suburban neighborhood.
I went to a trade school to get my cosmetologists liscense.</p>