As I get older, I sure am forgetting a lot …but I do sort of remember what MY college applications looked like.
I applied to exactly three schools. I somehow asked these colleges to send me applications. (Did we call and ask the college to send us an app? Did we write to the school and ask them to mail it to us? I really don’t remember that part of the process). How did we find the address of the college? There was no internet, and the schools were not in the yellow pages…?
The applications arrived in a big envelope-unfolded. The paper was of a very good, thick quality. There was ample space under the various questions to provide your answers/information. And you provided this information in handwritten form-neatness and legibility was important!
I am sure that I would have written my answers down somewhere else first, then carefully copied them onto the final application. And I think an envelope was provided to send in the final app. I don’t remember app fees, or how they would have been paid-probably with a check. How did we send in test scores? Grades? That part of it all escapes me now.
And of course, you learned the results via old fashioned snail mail!
NO WAY could we have applied to ten - or twenty - or more schools like students do today! Am I remembering this process correctly?
I applied to 2. I believe our public library (or was it the h.s. library?) had several rows of college catalogs. I just started leafing through. I think a called for an app, but that was a while ago!
I remember filling out all 4 one Saturday evening sitting cross-legged on my bed, and probably watching Saturday Night Live. Involve my parents? Whatever for? I imagine they wrote application checks.
And those were the days when you took the SAT once unless you were stupid - that’s what it meant when you took it twice!
I applied to 3. I love filling out stuff like that, though. It was not a chore at all. I had a very uneven SAT score, because I got a 790 on the English…but my total score was only 1180…so my math score was…well, if I could figure it out that quickly, I probably would have gotten a higher score.
I applied to three schools too. I don’t remember how I got the applications.
There also wasnt a FAFSA. As I recall, each college had some kind of financial aid form. I have no idea how I got that…maybe it came with the application…just in case.
OMG, my process exactly. I applied to exactly 4 schools with paper applications. My mom wrote checks for the application fees which went in the envelop with the app. I guess we must have also sent checks to the College Board for the SAT. No ACT on the East Coast, that was a Midwest test that we only vaguely heard about. I think I typed my essays on my non electric typewriter - the kind where you had the manual return and could type right off the page if you weren’t paying attention!!
I remember a big book that had all the colleges in it. My mom bought it at the bookstore. They still have it, but who would spend the money on that now with everything being on the internet?
I ended up at Yale. I KNOW FOR A FACT I would not get in today!!
Ha, I beat you, I had one of those fancy Smith-Coronas with the black and white cartridges. On really special days, I had the cartridge with the striped black and clear tape so you could correct your mistakes without having to change the cartridge (preening).
Re the SAT/ACT: I lived in ACT territory at the time of applying to colleges, and I was a total snob and said I wasn’t going to take the ACT because that was for midwestern state schools, not real schools! Ha ha! Indeed, I never took the ACT - and my midwestern kids never took the SAT.
I sat on my bed too, doing all 4 apps. I DID take the SAT twice, but only because I was at a party the night before the first one and wanted to see if my score would go up after a less-than-sober night (but hey-I was drinking LEGALLY back then!). It did not, it went down slightly. I found the colleges (major not found everywhere) through Dad’s suggestions (I wanted to be a pharmacist like him) and through catalogs at the library. I got in everywhere I applied but chose the only one that would guarantee a dorm space.
@sseamom - Haha! Choosing the one that would guarantee a dorm space!
I think - back then - the reason(s) many of us chose our schools would be laughed at today! I applied to two schools that were in today’s top 15, plus our big state flagship U. I got into one of those “top 15” schools but chose the big U because that’s where all of my friends were going! Maybe not the best reason, but I have to honestly say that I have never regretted my decision!
The high school had UC and CSU paper applications. Applicants needed to fill in only one for each system, no matter how many campuses were applied to (although they may have been a limit of 3, at least for UC). Like today, high school courses and grades were self-reported, to be verified after matriculation by the final high school transcript, and no recommendations were needed. UCs at the time did require the SAT or ACT, plus three Achievement (= SAT subject) tests (English language, Math 1 or 2, and any third). A big difference was that many or most campuses (probably other than UCB, UCLA, and CPSLO) and/or majors admitted at each system’s minimum eligibility criteria. Some students got rejected by UCB and/or UCLA, but then got admitted to UCI that they did not apply to.
For private colleges that used recommendations, applicants had to get counselors and teachers to fill in paper recommendation forms provided by the colleges.
I grew up in Ohio. We all took the SAT…not too many kids took the ACT. I thought we actually took the money for,the SAT to the HS. But I could be wrong.
I also took the “achievement tests” although I clearly remember thumbing through the book at the exam trying to figure out what to take! I didn’t feel like I had achieved in much!
I also never went on a single college visit, and actually saw my school for he first time the day I was dropped off for my freshman year.
I had seen my college campus before starting, but my parents hadn’t. They saw it for the first time the day they dropped me off (note: day, as in - haul the suitcases in, help unpack, hugs and kisses, goodbye - not the 2 day extravaganza the same school now has).
I applied to 2 schools. The one that my dad went to and the one my mom went to. I really didn’t even think about it.
I thought it didn’t matter where you went to college. Actually I think back in the early 80’s at least for women it didn’t. lol
Snail mail application requests, of course, for the ones that weren’t instate and therefore available in the HS. It cost money to call long distance! And those checks our parents wrote- they were from hundreds of banks as the banking laws were such that everyone banked at one close to them- no branches even within a city you could choose from.
I applied to 9 colleges, because I was insecure and assumed I’d never get in anywhere. (I was accepted to all of them.) I also took the SAT twice for the same reason. I liked the pictures in the Mount Holyoke brochure more than the ones in the Brown brochure, and I’d heard that Providence had a high crime rate, so I chose MHC. I’m guessing that at least half of the colleges that accepted me would reject me today!
I don’t remember the specifics of the application process, so it couldn’t have been that stressful. We drew up our lists by thumbing through the big green Baron’s book in the guidance office. At the time I was applying to colleges in the 1970s, many all-male colleges were going coed. They were a huge attraction for me and my classmates at our all-girl high school.
Note that the math 2 achievement test then (just like now) had a substantial percentage of takers scoring 800, due to the self-selection effect (since everyone taking it is at least a year advanced in math, selecting for those good at math).