Where are my 90s era Harvard classmates sending their kids?

[Anonymous]

Past few years have seen the children of all my Harvard 1990-something classmates head off to college. Where have they chosen to go? here’s the list so far:

University of Virginia
Wake Forest
Auburn
Sewanee
Duke
Tulane
SMU

I am sensing a pattern here…

[Anonymous]

It takes two to make a Harvard child?

[Anonymous]

The pattern being regression to the mean.

[Anonymous]

Harvard

[Anonymous]

Meh, when I look at my Ivy parent kid’s we see:

Harvard
Pomona
UT Austin
John’s Hopkins
Princeton
Yale
Stanford
Williams
Barnard
NYU
BU

[Anonymous]

What this shows is that getting into Harvard used to be immensely easier. People who went to Harvard in the 90s wouldn’t be in at anywhere comparable today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What this shows is that getting into Harvard used to be immensely easier. People who went to Harvard in the 90s wouldn’t be in at anywhere comparable today.

It’s not harder or easier per se, but the grade inflation is making the signals of quality very noisy. A few decades ago, the high school grades already helped the admissions pick the outstanding (academically) students pretty accurately. In addition, applicants these days are supposed to play victim and write a sob story about what kind of hardship they have gone through and how they have overcome their hardship and what lessons they have learned. It’s like everyone is applying for a script writing major!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meh, when I look at my Ivy parent kid’s we see:

Harvard
Pomona
UT Austin
John’s Hopkins
Princeton
Yale
Stanford
Williams
Barnard
NYU
BU

But also give us the less selective schools...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What this shows is that getting into Harvard used to be immensely easier. People who went to Harvard in the 90s wouldn’t be in at anywhere comparable today.

It’s not harder or easier per se, but the grade inflation is making the signals of quality very noisy. A few decades ago, the high school grades already helped the admissions pick the outstanding (academically) students pretty accurately. In addition, applicants these days are supposed to play victim and write a sob story about what kind of hardship they have gone through and how they have overcome their hardship and what lessons they have learned. It’s like everyone is applying for a script writing major!

Also, it used to be a lot easier just as a person who could pay. The world was the opposite of flat. And if you were American and went to a private HS, acceptance rate was above 25%.

Anywho, my Harvard friends sending kids to Harvard! Legacy still a big leg up. And being full pay can't hurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pattern being regression to the mean.

I thought the pattern identified would be warm weather.

[Anonymous]

My 80s era DH sending his/our kids to Williams and CalTech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Past few years have seen the children of all my Harvard 1990-something classmates head off to college. Where have they chosen to go? here’s the list so far:

University of Virginia
Wake Forest
Auburn
Sewanee
Duke
Tulane
SMU

I am sensing a pattern here…

All great schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What this shows is that getting into Harvard used to be immensely easier. People who went to Harvard in the 90s wouldn’t be in at anywhere comparable today.

It’s not harder or easier per se, but the grade inflation is making the signals of quality very noisy. A few decades ago, the high school grades already helped the admissions pick the outstanding (academically) students pretty accurately. In addition, applicants these days are supposed to play victim and write a sob story about what kind of hardship they have gone through and how they have overcome their hardship and what lessons they have learned. It’s like everyone is applying for a script writing major!

Wrong. It is easier. Harvard used to have a much higher admission rate. In 1988, it was 14.6% and less than 15,000 applications.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1988/7/8/freshman-class-sets-application-records-pthe/

In 2025, there was a 3.43% acceptance rate out of 57,435 apps.

https://features.thecrimson.com/2021/freshman-survey/makeup-narrative/#:~:text=This%20year%2C%20the%20College's%20acceptance,totals%20a%20historic%201%2C965%20students.

[Anonymous]

Are you at a public high school?

At our private, it’s:

Harvard (x8)
Northwestern
Cornell
WashU
Vandy
Colgate

[Anonymous]

McGill
Colby
Trinity
Wesleyan
Penn