<p>From a purely numbers perspective it would seem that getting into top schools ‘back in the day’ was SIGNIFICANTLY easier…for example Yale’s admit rate was 26.4% in 1976 vs. 7.4% for the most recent year. The primary driver of this has been the growth in number of applicants (~9,400 in 1976 vs. ~27,000 in 2011) as the total number of students matriculating was roughly the same in both years ~1,300. </p>
<p>However, one could postulate that, although it was ‘numerical’ easier to get in back in the 1970s, from a qualitative perspective it was likely comparably difficult (today is probably still slightly harder but it was still tough at the time) to get in. At the time you had a ‘small’ applicant pool (probably more regional to the northeast) which was likely almost entirely comprised of relatively competititve applicants for the time (decently high grades and test scores), in addition to a sizeable pool of legacy / connection applicants (likely higher than today which again limits the number of slots allocated to ‘regular’ applicants). Combining these factors, the competitive set faced back in the 1970 was still likely to be extremely tough - even if the admit rate was 26%. Today, with the millions spent of marketing, you likely have a mixed candidate pool where a decent percentage of the pool is made up of people who have absolutely no chance of getting in. Additionally, the basic thing that has changed in admissions from the 1970s to today is the ‘one-up-manships’ in terms of test prep, ECs, etc. which have just raised the minimum bar for candidates which again probably limits the true competitive set faced by today’s applicants. </p>
<p>Overall, i think it was easier to get in back in the day, however, i wouldn’t say it was as easy as some of the anecdotal evidence presented in this thread may suggest. </p>
<p>Yale Data: “W033 Freshmen Admissions Summary” ([Detailed</a> Data | Office of Institutional Research](<a href=“http://oir.yale.edu/detailed-data#ycfreshmen]Detailed”>http://oir.yale.edu/detailed-data#ycfreshmen))</p>