Then vs Now, admissions edition
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Anonymous
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mid 80s
top 10%, 1390 sat in: cal, case, cornell, michigan rejected: yale (REALLY wanted to go) went to cornell fwiw, us population increased by 100 million AND top schools have really loosened their purse-strings towards the underprivileged between my then and now. |
Anonymous
and the number of international students, particularly of means, is way up |
Anonymous
VT accepts 57 percent of students |
Anonymous
Only 47% in-state. |
Anonymous
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Late 80's: Well-known Ivy feeder public school in NYC. GPA was in the high 80's. I had B's and even C's on my report cards. SAT was 1250 maybe? I forget, but it wasn't super impressive even then. I worked PT all through HS but I had ZERO ecs otherwise - no sports, no clubs, no nothing.
Rejected from Wesleyan, got into Michigan. AS IF that would happen today! |
Anonymous
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1020 SAT early 90s. Bottom of top 10 percent of class for GPA. Highest math was Pre-Cal, took 2 languages and was a foreign exchange student. Scored a 2 on the one AP exam, I took as a senior.
Got into NYU, PSU, UMD. Rejected from Georgetown and was heartbroken. I don’t know what I’d do today. |
Anonymous
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SAT 1350, only EC were school sports teams and a job. Had a couple of B's and even a C in honors chem. Only AP was APUSH (scored a 5!).
I was in honors pre-calculus junior year and decided it was too much homework with sports and a new job so I asked by counselor in passing a week after the second semester if I could drop pre-calculus and she let me without notifying my parents. I don't think they would have cared since they never noticed I dropped the class. The job wasn't a necessity, it was just a fun place to hang out and get paid. I look back and regret dropping out since it knocked my out of considering STEM majors. I had gotten straight A's in every math class I took so I still am puzzled the counselor didn't at least try to persuade me. She said I had met the math requirement for colleges since I had 3 1/2 years of math (including algebra in 8th, which was the very highest track at my school). In at UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, and UC Davis. I didn't apply anywhere else. |
Anonymous
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Went to college in the 1990s.
3.8ish GPA, unweighted (school did not weight). No APs as school did not offer. Rank 3/100. 1310 SAT. ECs—3 varsity sports, NHS, math team, Model UN, couple other things. Went to Cornell. Obviously would not get in today! |
Anonymous
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Late 90s. 2.9 HS GPA, but 4.0 DE GPA (15 credits) at time of application from local university. 1230 SAT. Worked 20 hrs PT throughout (FT over summers), plus 1 club with leadership. URM, FGLI.
The two things I remember most are 1) Colby College throwing $$$ my way and 2) falling asleep on the SATs both times. Colby visited my school (diversity recruitment) and I nearly considered attending, because of the resources. Then, I realized only 2% of the population was Black. I wonder how I would have scored if I'd known to rest beforehand. I worked the night prior to testing both times, including midnight the 2nd time. It makes me wonder how many other kids are making boneheaded mistakes because they're also managing the process in a vacuum. Attended Temple. |
Anonymous
| 1991 - valedictorian, but extremely small class in small southern town. 1540 SAT, but nothing special in extracurricular. Maxed out rigor at school, but that was like 6 AP’s with half 4’s and half 5’s. Got into Harvard (well.. Radcliffe), Yale, Brown. No way is happening now! |
Anonymous
| Told the kids it was tougher back in the day. Basically, you needed a 38 ACT and 6.2 GPA to even be considered by Towson State. Kids have it easy these days. That's what I tell 'em. And you needed to be able to throw a ball over Sugarloaf back then. Kids are soft these days. |
Anonymous
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top 15% of HS class in NC late 90s.
1300 SAT, 3 AP classes with 5s test scores, 2 varsity sports including captainship; decent extracurriculars; worked part-time; STEM interest. Accepted OOS with partial scholarship to VT; declined to go to NCSU. I think I would still get in today. |
Anonymous
Graduated from a NE boarding school with honors. I never responded that well to standardized tests; my SAT score was 1400. I took one AP class (Latin) and one SAT II. Class of 2005. I had some extracurriculars (orchestra, some significant community service). I applied early to UChicago and Georgetown SFS. I got into both. I doubt I would today, with that SAT score. |
Anonymous
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I grew up in Asia. Ranked ~150th on the second round national entrance exam (out of ~20,000); I'm not sure how many people took the first round, but it's a little under a million per year nowadays.
I was accepted to my top choice school (at the time, the top school in the country) but not my top choice major. Luckily, I was able to internally transfer after my first year. |
Anonymous
1987 |