<p>Within 5 years of graduation, my sister and I both realized we could not have gotten admitted to our university. It had just gotten too selective and competitive . 30 years later? Not a chance. </p>
<p>Acceptance rates were much much higher 30 years ago. Back in the 1970s, Penn’s acceptance rate was about 40-50% of applicants if not higher. I believe Yale and Harvard (and probably Princeton) had acceptance rates in the 20-30% range, so they were much harder to get in but even those rates aren’t in the teens or single digits of today.</p>
<p>Yep. The first time I heard this was from my alumni interviewer, who was maybe 15 years out, telling me in 1997 that she and her husband would never get in competing against the students she was interviewing. And the wheel keeps going round and round…</p>
<p>I think it is actually easier to get into RPI now compared to 30 years ago. Electrical engineering used to be ranked #6 nationally but has been passed by a bunch of big state schools.</p>
<p>Definitely. I was only allowed to apply to three, due to finances, and had to beg to apply to the third, my dream school. I got into all three: 2 in-state and the “reach”. Had to go to my safety as I could not afford my dream school (financial package wasn’t bad, but not enough). If it were today, I think I’d still have a strong shot at my dream school, and thanks to policies of “meeting demonstrated need”, would have been able to attend with less debt (likely zero debt, to be honest) than incurred at my public alma mater. And I would have been MUCH happier.</p>
<p>Honestly, as D goes through this process, I didn’t want her to go through what I did, and made sure she applied to schools accordingly, and it seems to be paying off. My state school is considered pretty darned good, but the career services dept. is lacking and the alum network is virtually non-existent, despite solid rankings in USNWR. We looked at placement rates before letting D apply anywhere. Gotta love hindsight…</p>
<p>Absolutely not. I have no idea why Northwestern accepted me back in the day. There’s no way in hell I’d be accepted today. I am in awe of those who are.</p>
<p>Nope. I went to a HYP school, and while I was a very good student with high scores and a bunch of APs, I had absolutely zero extra-curricular activities and nothing that would make me stand out to today’s adcoms. Back then it helped that the university had only recently gone co-ed, and they needed women!</p>
<p>No way. That was almost 45 years ago. However, I would have risen to the task and worked harder in order to reach my goals. In those days, I was at the top of the heap. I would have done what I had to in order to remain at the top.</p>
<p>I agree with the general tenor here. I hardly worked at all in high school, but my d worked herself so hard it make my head spin at times. It is an order of magnitude more difficult now.</p>
<p>I suspect not, I went to NYU back when it was still mostly a commuter focused school with a very different mission, today its entry stats are pretty tough…my grades tailed off senior year, and my SAT’s weren’t hyper, but then again, I also managed to get into the University of Chicago, too, so there was some reason behind my admisstions. </p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is that kids tend to rise to the level of competition, it is hard to know given the world today, how any of us would react. For one thing, back in my day schools in my area didn’t offer SAT prep, or prep for AP tests the way they do today (heck, my HS, which sent kids to pretty competitive to highly competitive schools, only offered I believe AP calc AB, Chem,Physics and I think Bio…and we had to fight to get AP chem and physics our senior year, not enough kids were taking it), so I have to think that most of us ‘slackers’ would probably do okay, too. The one thing I think is different is affordability, I doubt very much, even in 1980’s dollars, I could afford NYU today, given how much the cost has gone up and also how little aid they tend to give anyone other than the really modest familiy income students…</p>
<p>I would get into my college again. It’s a directional state u. Only applied to one school. Could have reached higher but was following a boyfriend so didn’t even try. The relationship didn’t even last through the first semester but I loved the school. S2 chose the same state u. (class of 2012). His SAT score was very similar to mine.</p>
<p>Probably not, it has become even more selective than it was then. But back then I had a just OK SAT score but good recs and essays…went to a quirky small private HS without grades, and I notice a lot of kids from my HS still get into that college…so who knows.</p>
<p>I had very good SAT scores and a GPA that was only respectable after weighting. I had evidence of pursuing intellectual passion, and good ECs. I was an NMF when it was a separate test. I had good course rigor, except for not taking Calc. I think that my alma mater took me despite my grades then, and <em>might</em> do so now. It’s hard to say.</p>
<p>I would have gotten in but probably would not have received the national merit semi finalist scholarship that I received from Dad’s Fortune 100 employer… Never studied for the exam and didn’t really know anything about it. The scholarship was 5k per year which was a lot of money to my parents in 1980.</p>
<p>Yes, I would have. Didn’t apply to any real reaches. My high school was considered one of the best in the state and didn’t offer any APs. I didn’t take math my Sr year. But - top 5% GPA, can’t remember SATs but in the high 90’s percentile wise . Took once because we were told you couldn’t study for them. A few interesting ECs with lots of depth. Got a merit scholarship to one of the LACs in the NW that brought it down to affordable. Done.
Nonetheless, my father did a happy dance when I transferred to one of the state flagships. Tuition there was $250 per semester. Yes, I’m that old…undergrad in mid-70’s.</p>
<p>I had outstanding test scores, 3rd in class, and some state and national awards in various academic areas, plus strong evidence of academic passion / self-study in a certain area. I wouldn’t be a shoo-in since no such thing as a shoo-in but I think I’d still be in the reasonable ballpark. </p>
<p>Dragonmom, I remember my dad told me my whole five years was $10K. (my major was five years then). And like you, I remember a semester’s tuition being $250! Imagine! LOL.</p>
<p>I doubt it. My sister and I joke about it. She went to Penn and I went to JHU. We were “bright well-rounded kids” who probably wouldn’t stand out in today’s pool of applicants. </p>