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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't understand why tuitions are so ridiculously high and why are acceptance rates so much lower than before. didn't the smartest kids go to Harvard 30 years also? why is then the competition so much bigger today? is it international students or what? [/quote]

The most important reason is that there are simply many, many more high school graduates than there were in the 1980s and early 90s.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/12/06/high-school-graduates-drop-number-and-be-increasingly-diverse

(scroll down to figure 1.1)

This article from 1984 says:

[i]The Census Bureau projects a 26 percent drop in the number of 18-year-olds, who continue to make up the majority of college freshmen, between 1979 and 1994. Fewer students would force institutions to raise tuition to make up for lost revenue. Administrators have been surprised and relieved that total enrollment of both full- and part-time students at four- and two-year institutions grew from 12.1 million in 1980–81 to 12.5 million in 1983–84.

Still, it is widely believed that enrollment cannot continue to defy demographics. Because roughly half of all 18-year-olds do not attend college, educators expect the 26 percent drop in their numbers to result in a 15 percent decline in nationwide post-secondary enrollment by the mid-1990s. Some experts predict that 150 to 200 small, liberal arts colleges will go out of business because of the enrollment slump. After 1994, the 18-year-old population—and college enrollment—should climb again as children whose parents comprised the post-World War II baby boom reach college age.[/i]

http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1984072700

And from these two articles:

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/04/college-admits-2037/
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1980/5/12/yield-for-class-of-1984-may/

You can see the raw numbers: Harvard accepted 2148 students in 1980 (for the class of 1984). It accepted 2037 students in 2016 (for the class of 2020). Now go back and look at figure 1.1 in that first link, showing how many more high school graduates there are today compared with in 1980. And there's your answer.

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