<p>MaineLonghorn, was tuition $4/hour when your went to school? That was the cost for a Texas school back when I went to college in the stone age. </p>
<p>Miami…the whole point is that there are many schools that were NOT as competitive for admissions a generation ago. Some folks attended colleges that are FAR more difficult to be admitted to now. </p>
<p>I think that there is some serious grade inflation these days and SAT score inflation these days (after the recentering of the SAT). Even separate from grade inflation, APs didn’t get the “extra point” in GPA at the UCs that they do these days. So the people who were taking APs were people who wanted to challenge themselves and learn more, but it didn’t help GPA at all. </p>
<p>Back in the old SAT days, a 1600 was virtually impossible. "Nine students out of 1.7 million—.000005 percent—got perfect SAT scores in 1985-86, and all of them were male. " <a href=“http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20096463,00.html”>http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20096463,00.html</a></p>
<p>Compare that with a 2400 nowadays after the SAT recentering. "Less than 0.025 percent of the high school seniors in the United States who take the SAT every year get a perfect score…According to the College Board, which administers the test, there were 1,664,479 seniors in the class of 2012 who took the SAT. Of those, 360 got perfect scores. " <a href=“http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/Oct/28/student-gets-perfect-sat-score-and-so-does-her/”>http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/Oct/28/student-gets-perfect-sat-score-and-so-does-her/</a></p>
<p>So comparing our GPAs and SATs back in those days with the accepted GPAs and SATs of the same unis these days is like comparing apples and oranges. But based on class rank plus holistic info, then, yes, I think that I would still be accepted to UCLA.</p>
<p>As a side note, because of grade inflation and SAT score inflation, this makes the top scorers very difficult to sort out by colleges because everyone is bumping up against this lower ceiling. It would be better to spread out the top end of the “bell” curve…</p>
<p>I would have gotten into my school today because of my class rank. My SAT was okay, nothing spectacular, but I wasn’t very focused on math and did no prep whatsoever. </p>
<p>Like MaineLonghorn, it was the only school I applied to and I didn’t even conceive of the possibility of not getting in. Those were the days, lol.</p>
<p>I would still be accepted to my college (one not generally on the CC radar) but I can honestly say ten years post DD’s undergrad acceptance that I have doubts whether she would get in to her Ivy undergrad today. She had a great transcript and a very cool thread of interests but so do many of these kids. Between the common app and the fact that many more know that they need to up their game beyond just academic achievement I believe that she would have a shot but it would be much less of a shot than when she went through the process. </p>
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<p>I remember entering courses and grades onto a paper UC application and calculating UC GPA according to the instructions, which were to add a point for honors and AP courses with C or higher grades. However, there were not dozens of AP courses offered; my high school only offered about six or seven at the time (two of which were English literature and calculus BC, which were the top levels of the honors English and math sequences).</p>
<p>Just keep this in mind. In my family, my sister was considered the anti-intellectual party girl (OK, “the dumb one”), and she went to Vanderbilt back in the 1980’s. She thinks it’s hysterical that now Vandy is considered like Harvard or something, since she’s the kind of kid who basically had to be held down to get her to turn the TV off and do her homework. My mom forced her to take Stanley Kaplan twice just to get 1100 on her SAT’s (out of 1600). She hated to read. It’s kind of crazy the way that schools (particularly down South) where the less intellectual members of the family were parked for four years are now considered so difficult to get into. Crazy!</p>
<p>Momzie,</p>
<p>That sounds like a southern college classmate’s assessment of Davidson College back in the '90s when he toured it after being admitted. It also didn’t help he was fed up with being surrounded by highly vocal political conservatives in his hometown and feared he’d experience more of the same after meeting the students back then in two full-day tours…one before acceptance and accepted student’s day. </p>
<p>This factor, plus his desire to leave the south for college were reasons he turned down a near-full ride to Davidson for my LAC. </p>
<p>Your post also reminds me of how NYU…especially CAS and Steinhardt were perceived by my NYC public magnet HS classmates back in the '90s. Part of it may have been the fact 1/3 of my graduating class were accepted to CAS…and most of them were from the middle-bottom of the class if my HS ranked. </p>
<p>Speaking of NYU, back in my days in the 70’s, it was consider peer schools with Baruch, Hunter, Pace, Fordham and others in the City, Seton Hall, LIU, Stoney Brook, Rutgers and others in surrounding areas. Columbia was the high reach. I did not even had a desire to transfer to NYU if I had a chance.</p>
<p>Now a days, the name Stern is considered a gold ticket for Wall Street, its being considered even beyond the graduates from Columbia.</p>
<p>Time has changed… </p>
<p>Stern is now considered better than Columbia? Back in the day, I was accepted at Stern for my MBA and rejected at Columbia.</p>
<p>I find it fascinating that both schools I attended – Northwestern undergrad and NYU Stern for grad school – have risen dramatically in the rankings since my day. When I tell people nowadays where I went, they think I’m really smart!!</p>
<p>@VeryHappy - I bet you are not complaining. Nothing like getting unexpected dividends and returns later. </p>
<p>VH</p>
<p>You ARE smart!!!</p>
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<p>@dadoftwingirls, yes, the tuition stayed that low for a LONG time. I remember being shocked when I heard it had gone up to $12 an hour, a good while after I graduated.</p>
<p>I would have gotten into my college again even though it has risen greatly in selectivity… back then anyone could get in as it was the state school. I was barely 15 and had high GPA and was somewhere in the top 10 in my class. I don’t know if I would have gotten into my medical school which was tops then and is tops now with about 2.2% acceptance rate. I was extremely rigorous and took 26 credit hours one quarter and was a senior by sheer work load by end of sophomore year (no AP credits back then that I knew of) with a high GPA. I would like to think I would still get in today; I was only 16 when I applied to med school and 17 when I started. I never studied for any standardized tests and just did okay on them; they would have been my Achilles heel in the application.</p>
<p>I went to PSU main campus. I was also accepted at George Washington and Syracuse Newhouse.</p>
<p>No way would I have gotten in any of them these days. I had a 3.2, no honors or AP (I don’t think there even were AP classes back then). I didn’t take science or math my senior year, so no pre-calculus or physics. I had a 1240 in the CR/Math SAT and I think my rank was between 25% and 30%. And I had very, very little in the way of ECs. </p>
<p>I don’t even remember worrying about getting into the schools. I took the SAT once with no studying. Applications were no big deal. The one standout thing I had was a 690 in the CR section of the SAT. Which I think (since they made changes in the test) would be equal to 700-something these days. And since my initial major was Journalism, that may have helped.</p>
<p>I highly doubt PSU is so much harder these days that I couldn’t have been successful. Yet there is no way I would have been accepted, except to a branch campus.</p>
<p>1203, were you the role model for Dogey Hoose?</p>
<p>^^^Was that supposed to be Doogie Houser??</p>