Reply to Acceptance to selective colleges from private schools more difficult now than before?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I hear from my friends and colleagues who have high school age kids that getting into selective colleges has become much more difficult than when we were applying for college.  I finally came across the following article which seems to argue that while statistically this may be true, among truly qualified candidates this may not necessarily be true.  I'm curious to hear the opinions of other parents with kids applying to college.

http://ideas.time.com/2013/03/20/college-admissions-the-myth-of-higher-selectivity/[/quote]

It's fundamentally simple math.  Look at US population growth during the period spanning when many adults were applying to college, versus today.  Google estimates the current US population at 313 million.  At the same time, the universities and SLACs that are generally considered most selective have added only modest capacity during that period.  Someone may be able to come up with estimates of the number of applicants nationwide applying to college during the same time period.  When you consider that the Washington region, which has higher levels of education/advanced degrees, income and affluence than the country as a whole, probably has a disproportionate number of young people applying to very selective schools, the situation may seem even more difficult.  It's also no wonder that colleges and universities that might have been considered not as selective back in the day have become much more selective.

2010:
308,745,538 
2000:
281,421,906 
1990:
248,709,873 
1980:
226,545,805 
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