<p>Reading these posts, I realize I would never have gotten into my college with my high school credentials if I had to apply today. Any one else feel the same?</p>
<p>My HS credentials were pretty good (nearly perfect GPA, taking the most challeging courses), good ECs, OK SATs, good grades from flagship U, so yes, I probably would not have had any difficulty being accepted as a transfer to the OOS U I attended, which is not too selective (tho it is the other state’s flagship U). </p>
<p>Yes. I still would have collected all of the geographical diversity points that I offered that highly selective LAC (in fact they might even be more valuable now than they were then), and my GPA and test scores would still have been good enough to make the cut. Would I recommend this option to someone like my younger self? Not necessarily. The aid situation has changed drastically since then, and someone with my old profile could land a full-ride at a decent if not super-exciting place and graduate without the debt-load that I ended up with.</p>
<p>Yes, I probably would have aimed higher. I was rather naive. But I think my small LAC was a good fit for me, I would have been lost at a big U.</p>
<p>Maybe. I believe I was near the top of my class, (my school did not rank), had the equivalent of a Girl Scout gold award, attended what was then a top prep school, and had SAT scores that recentered are excellent. I took more APs than most in my school, though not at the levels that are now expected. (4 senior year, none before that.) Fairly interesting background having grown up as a foreign service brat. I was a legacy at Harvard, so better than the miniscule regular admit rate, but still not great odds.</p>
<p>Absolutely not. I didn’t take Math after 10th grade. My only APs were in English and History. I didn’t take SATIIs, or achievement tests as we called them back then. My SAT scores were decidedly lopsided and under 1400 for Math and Verbal combined (which was all we had then). I certainly did not have a perfect GPA. My ECs were mediocre. I needed financial aid. And I went to Tufts. When I realized that my older daughter, with better stats than mine couldn’t get into Tufts, I knew it was a whole new world out there in college admissions.</p>
<p>I’m partially with LeftofPisa – it’s definitely more competitive out there, especially at the top 40-50 schools. I suppose we all would like to think that we were special, but there are many more special kids out there, and the number of elite schools hasn’t gone up quite that much.</p>
<p>(Besides, as I get older, slower-thinking, and more absent-minded, it’s hard to remember that clever fellow who used to think so highly of himself.)</p>
<p>I think so…I took the most difficult courses my school offered, was involved in lots of ECs, and did well on my ACTs. I went to my state’s flagship public university. I never thought of applying anywhere else. It was the one and only school I applied to, and I didn’t really put much effort into the application process. My parents told me “you can go to any state school you choose.” There was no other option. If I was doing it today, I’m sure that I would be much more neurotic about choosing my college…and I probably would have ended up in exactly the same place. </p>
<p>Yes to my university, but probably not to my major. It’s too competitive these days…</p>
<p>Probably not. While my HS academic stats certainly qualify me for academic admittance at the most selective colleges today – nearly perfect GPA with highest rigor across the board, and I think most of the APs (except history) offered then, top 2% of the class, good SAT scores (especially recentered), NMF – but my ECs were nowhere near what most students who aspire to those kinds of colleges do now. I had a job, I took visual art classes and won some scholastic art awards, figure skated (although not at a particularly competitive level) and did some volunteering through Interact Club. My highly selective LAC has such a low admittance rate that I don’t think I would have a chance today.</p>
<p>I read a lot of alumni magazines and pleas for donations. Many, many schools hit the annual theme of how much stronger this year’s freshman class is than any class in the past. For a lot of schools, it only takes about five years after graduation before alumni start concluding that they’d never get in today. Certainly true for me.</p>
<p>With my actual grades <em>back then</em>, probably not. Accounting for grade inflation, possibly. </p>
<p>That said, back then I worked only as hard as I knew was required in order to obtain the provincial scholar designation and qualify for admission to my home town university. Had the bar been higher, I’m cautiously optimistic that I would’ve had the wherewithal to clear it.</p>
<p>Maybe. </p>
<p>Back then, my school was an admissions safety for me (though I did not know it at the time, only finding out the way the admissions process was done after attending). Now, it would likely be somewhere between low-to-mid-match and high-match in admissions for a student of my stats (with rescaled SAT scores), depending on division or major applied to.</p>
<p>The school that I actually applied to as a safety would be a low-match today (due to now being holistic). These days, I would recommend that an applicant of my stats either include a completely assured safety (automatic admission or merit scholarship school, or start at community college) or at the very least shotgun-apply to a lot of low-match* schools to minimize the risk of rejection at all such schools.</p>
<p>*And note the need to play the “level of applicant’s interest” game at schools which consider that.</p>
<p>If I were to apply to college today with comparable stats, I probably would be looking at a more selective set of schools, including elite schools and honors programs at state schools. Even though median SAT scores at my alma mater have gone up they seem to be getting fewer students with top stats. </p>
<p>I do not think I would have been admitted to my grad school (humanities PhD program) if I were applying today… Far more competition. </p>
<p>Ivy grad. Would I get in today with my stats? Not a chance. </p>
<p>I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot. When we began D’s college search, I noticed that Colgate was really highly ranked and hard to get into. I was shocked, because that’s where I went, and I certainly didn’t think I was all that impressive a student! (Now I am bugging my mom to find the box she has with my HS grades and SAT scores. Maybe they are better than I remember!?)</p>
<p>My memory is that I was a B-average student with some As and some Cs (maybe even a D in there somewhere.) I think I got 12-something on my SAT (W+M). Not phenomenal by any means. I did, however, write my essay about living aboard our small sailboat in Europe for my junior year, so maybe that small thing set me apart enough to pique their interest?</p>
<p>But basically, no, I don’t think I would have gotten into Colgate if I had to apply today with the same stats. I do think it was easier in those days (1983).</p>
<p>I went to an instate public directional that guaranteed admission to kids in the top 25% of their high school class. Yes I would be admitted now.</p>
<p>What is more interesting to me is what a total slacker I was in high school, and how much I would have absolutely hated attending the public high schools my kids attended! We enjoyed life so much more, had much, much more free time, kids worked long term part time jobs after school and in the summers. We lived a smaller life. I grew up in a small midwestern blue collar town, where there were traditionally many manufacturing jobs for high school graduates, and many family farms handed down. Those of us who went on to college took a pretty relaxed road to get there. Nobody studied for the SAT or ACT, I don’t recall anyone taking them more than once. and yet ere are doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, businesspersons, etc. at our reunions.</p>
<p>Yes, I believe I would have been accepted at all the schools I applied to in high school. </p>
<p>Yes. CU-Boulder is still easy to get into. </p>