I graduated from high school in 1980, from a good public school in the MD suburbs of DC. My GPA was 3.89 when applying to colleges with just one class identified as Accelerated (Unified Mathematics where they kept a group of us together since 7th grade). There was nothing like a weighted GPA and I didn’t take a single AP exam - no one seemed to care.
I had very few ECs, but I did play basketball outside of school and had a part time job. It wasn’t important to include those things on my applications - I’m not even sure there was a spot for them. I guess I was a commended national merit scholar and had decent SATs - 1340 (94th percentile for Verbal, 98th percentile for Math for college bound seniors). I also got a couple of Cs and multiple Bs in my senior year, and no one asked, much less cared.
I applied to a small number of schools, which included just one safety. The others were match schools at the time.
U of MD - the general consensus was that this is where you applied when you had no other decent choices, due to mediocre scholastics or budget concerns. Accepted
U of Penn - Accepted, but visited the Philly campus on a rainy day and thought it sucked - also turned off by what I perceived as a condescending welcome address.
Duke - my brother went there, so not only did I expect to get in, but the interviewer who called to set one up didn’t bother as I had no questions. Accepted but offered January admission and was thoroughly POd - what was I supposed to do for 4 months? No thanks.
Cornell - I had decided this was where I wanted to go without having visited. I was waitlisted and don’t believe I ever got a final answer, rejection or otherwise. I had moved on mentally and didn’t care.
U of Michigan - I applied here as a 5th choice only because UVA had an extra essay I wasn’t motivated to work on. Accepted and offered a place in their honors program. I went there without having visited the campus, but ultimately graduated from U of MD after switching majors multiple times - don’t ask.
I am a similar vintage as you. I took the SAT once without having prepped for it. I took one AP test. There were no USNWR rankings published. I applied to one college,and during my visit they said I’d get in no problem so there was no stress there. My tuition was so low it was easily payable by my Dad even though he had not saved up specifically for my college. My high school years were pretty carefree. I wish it was still like that for my kids.
Ditto- attended UMass Amherst. Only school I applied to. (1982). I recall the application taking all of 15 minutes and that was it. Two older brothers way smarter than me and they went to our state U so I knew I had no chance (or interest) going elsewhere. Sent app in October, admitted in November. I think all four yrs was 16k of which I paid half through summer jobs and a small loan. Don’t remember doing too much homework in HS and got mostly Bs -upset my dad because both older bros were top in the class. Definitely different today.
Another thing I notice is today’s kids know more stuff (sheer volume) but they don’t necessarily have more wisdom. They seem less able to do more for themselves but they sure can make those phone and tablets zing!
Me, too. Back when ACT prep was getting a good night’s sleep before the test. I got a 32. A few of my HS classes were hard, I took honors/AP but there was no weighted grading, graduated with a 3.89. Admitted to Ohio State, U of Cincinnati, and Youngstown State (hometown and my dad taught there). Had family in Boulder and I was adventurous so I went to U of Colorado, eventually graduated. Were those the days? If only I had known it then!
I am not convinced I could have worked my way through school - I went to the state U at the time, graduated in 1985 - I came out with $10,000 of student loans, and my parents picked up the rest - I am pretty sure the total cost was around $20K per year. I don’t see how at age 18 I would make the kind of money to pay my way through. Well maybe in the very long drawn out plan.
1981 grad: I had around an 86/100 average, 1110 on my SATs (enough to earn me a $1000 regents scholarship), no ECs, never took chemistry or calculus in HS, was in the top 15% of my graduating class. No APs or honors classes. I was accepted at Syracuse (school of engineering), RIT and Stony Brook (where I eventually went, for Physics). I was denied at Binghamton and University of Rochester (my reach school), wait listed at SUNY Maritime.
How about, back then, a college student was more likely to be able to be self-supporting on a high school graduate’s job (not requiring living with parents) and while still having money left over to pay for the small state university tuition and books, or needing only a small student loan that could be paid off easily shortly after graduation?
Yeah, I paid off my small student loans after graduating, even though my parents would have done so if I had reminded them that was their intent - my initial $23k salary seemed like a lot at the time, so I didn’t bother. I just looked in the back of my 1978 PSAT results booklet, and it indicates the expected COA for a public or private 4 year institution to be $3k or $5k, respectively.
When I first posted this my nostalgia was triggered by my twin Ds college search. They may or may not be smarter than me, but their opportunities and expectations are so vastly different. Practically all their classes are AP level, even if not related to their strengths or interests. A course that is simply at an honors level to them seems remedial (my word, not theirs). I was never very driven scholastically, and neither are they. The schools I listed above would be very unrealistic targets for them, except for UMd (and possibly Michigan). I can’t imagine what awaits their children in another 30 year or so.
I remember “expensive” private universities costing almost $20k per year in the early to mid 1980s, with in-state public universities costing much less.
Here is the UC tuition history: https://www.ucop.edu/operating-budget/_files/fees/201415/documents/Historical_Fee_Levels.pdf . For 1985-1986, in-state fees were $1,245 mandatory charges, plus small additional campus-specific fees. Out-of-state students paid $3,816 extra tuition. A dorm room and full meal plan were something like $3k to $5k per academic year, so it was probably about $5k to $7k per year all-in after adding costs for books and whatever (and less if you lived in a cheaper cooperative house or some such). Can’t imagine the in-state price for other states’ public universities being anywhere near $20k per year.
I went to one of the top public high schools in Ohio in the 70’s. We didn’t have rankings back then, but it’s currently rated one of the top 130 high schools in the country. Even so, I only remember one student in my graduating class of about 180 going to an Ivy (Penn.) Nobody cared about academic prestige when choosing their college. I’m going to guess that 2/3 of my graduating class went to either Ohio State, Miami of Ohio, or Ohio University.
My tuition at the University of Alaska in the early 80’s was about $300 per semester. Those were the days you could attend a school for a year and become in-state. I think the total cost of attendance, (tuition, food, housing, books) was about $3500 a year. I had to spend 4 years in the military + take out a $3000 loan from the State of Alaska to even afford that, since I was paying my own way through school.
Each individual grad school class at USC when I started in 1987 was over $900, and the next year went over $1000. No way I could have afforded that on my own. Luckily, my company was paying for it.
@RandyErika I can identify with you because I am from the same time period and attended a HS in Northern VA then. I agree with you U of MD was a safety for most kids who were sort of smart, and UVA was a safety/match for smart kids at our HS. With 3.0 gpa, 1460 SAT (which was then higher than Harvard average SAT score) and two varsity sports, I got into UM, didn’t even apply to UVA but went to Cornell which I didn’t know was an Ivy until one semester later.
79 hs graduate here. I don’t remember any talk about testing or AP or applications. I knew less than a handful of people who went away to four year schools (UMass and UMaine) and only one real friend who went to college, the two year program at Bryant College. Is that even around anymore? Just occurred to me I never see it mentioned here on the boards. I went to “secretarial school” and had a choice between Katherine Gibbs and Burdett, and chose Burdett where I became a Certified Administrative Assistant on my own dime. I’ve since completed two degrees and did it while working full time, the second degree (2001) while single parenting two kids as well. I made my last loan payment 8 months ago at age 56 LOL.
While the sticker prices have gone up and made the process so much more expensive, I think its still easier on some students as we, as parents, are busting our butts to make sure they get a good undergraduate experience. My parents were clueless to college of any sort. Because of my experience, I’ve been focused on college for my kids since the day they were born. One didn’t go, he served in the military instead. The other is finishing up junior year.
I didn’t work very hard in high school but I got good grades.
I don’t even know if my high school offered AP classes. I certainly didn’t take any.
I took the SAT’s once. It was at a private school I didn’t attend(I was a public school kid). It was hot, there was no AC, and the windows were open. Five minutes after the test started the school’s marching band starting practicing right outside the window…and they really needed the practice…
I applied to 6 schools and got into all but William & Mary.
My SAT score earned me free tuition to UMass Amherst.
Thankfully I have really nice parents because I went to school in VA instead.
Flash forward to the present time. My son did well in school, took no AP classes and took the SAT’s once…though no band practice for him.
He applied to 8 schools and got into all but one.
He got into UMass but is most likely going to my alma mater.
I had a 98%+ average, a 1400 SAT score, was NM semi-finalist (never a finalist because I had no idea what national merit was), 2nd in my class, and I applied to one school and went there (public flagship). My parent and I had no clue about financial aid and in hindsight, I guess I could have had more options. My HS started offering AP classes in 1991, the year after i graduated. I think 4 years of tuition, r&b and spending money was in the mid $20,000s
Now I have a junior with a 34 ACT/1480 SAT and an A- average and he probably can’t even get into the 3rd best school in our state.
I had a 1330 SAT in the late 1980s and around a 3.75 gpa. I was in some honors classes and completed math through algebra II (two years of high school math, total). I applied and was admitted to UCSD, UCSB, and UCD. I chose UCSD, commuted 30 miles from home for four years. Tuition was about $2000/yr.
When. I got to college I skipped pre calc entirely and jumped straight into the more challenging calc sequence of the two that were offered with no difficulty. I wasn’t unprepared for college, but by today’s standards, my high school transcript was seriously lacking. I never took an AP or dual enrollment class (if there were any) and aimed to barely complete the coursework required for UC admissions.
Here in AZ a 3.75gpa and a 1330 SAT would get close to full tuition automatic scholarships at the state schools, so if my kids had stayed in state and lived at home they could have had similar costs with a similar profile (although they’d need more math than I took). In California though, not so much. They wouldn’t even get admitted.
I am not as far back as most of you. I graduated high school from a small, all-male college preparatory school in the south in 1994. I had taken eight AP exams (I sat one without taking the course). I had a 1300 on the SAT and a 31 on the ACT. The prep back then was buying a book and taking some practice exams. I applied to eight universities: Harvard, Yale, Rice, Vanderbilt, Emory, SMU, Tulane, and UGA. My parents never talked to me about paying for college until AFTER I received my admission letters. I was admitted to all, except Harvard and Rice (wait-listed). I really wanted to go to Yale. But, I learned late that my parents plan for college was that I would get a scholarship. I didn’t get any aid at Yale. I did receive a Hunt Scholarship at SMU (and some other outside scholarships). So, I went to SMU. The environment wasn’t what I wanted, but I received an excellent education, which I parlayed into a free graduate degree on a Fulbright and law school at Georgetown (still paying for that one). My wife and I learned a lot from our college experiences. Our kids are in middle school. While they are in private school, we are open and honest with them about college finances, cost, and fit. We want them to graduate debt free and enter the work place without the graduate debtload we have (we have no undergraduate debt). That’s a pretty hard goal.
I also graduated in 1994, no AP’s, 32 ACT, and I think I was NMSF. I talked to a private college AO at a college fair my junior year and with that my mind was made. Never even looked at another school. My mom says the all-in cost for 1994-5 was $12,000 and my scholarships took it down to about $3000. She thinks my cost for 1995-6 was about $6000. They paid for all but $400 of those first two years but I think they were tapped out because they had me borrow that $400. I actually got married between sophomore and junior years and went to night school through another private college on my own dime after that. I worked at a nursing home, saved those paychecks for tuition and borrowed a total of $4000 for my degree.
My DD’17 went to the same high school I did. She applied and was accepted to my alma mater with a 25 ACT, no APs. The cost is now $42,000 and she was offered $18,000 merit so net cost of $24,000. So I guess the selectivity isn’t an issue there, but the cost sure went up!
DD’19 is at my same high school. APs are barely a thing here, they have to be taken online. DD is taking one and has sworn off doing any more. I think things are more low key in the Midwest and we are not looking at selective schools so it’s fine. I would say their high school experience is no more stressful than mine was.
To get an idea of the level of preparation of today’s students compared to past decades, in the 1980s, more than half of entering frosh at UCB had not already passed what is now called the Entry Level Writing requirement (back then the Subject A requirement), so they were required to take the remedial English composition course. Now, based on enrollment numbers of the English composition course for those who did not pass, very few frosh at UCB do not pass and need to take that course.
Also, the four year graduation rate at UCB was probably under 40% back then.