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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=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. [/quote]

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![/quote]

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.[/quote]

lol 14.6% wasn't exactly easy back then.  Easier sure, but sure as hell not easy by any stretch.[/quote]

It’s hard to compare because the applicant pool has expanded so much.  Maybe before fewer people applied but they were more high quality applicants.  The common app and internet and such have definitely made it easier to apply to more schools.  I didn’t know anyone that applied to more than one Ivy and most people didn’t apply to any.  
[b]But AI says the average sat of a Harvard admitted in 1991 was 1390, which is equivalent to a 1490 nowadays I think.  [/b]And it’s definitely higher than that now.  [/quote]

But the SAT has been scored down several times. The tests then and now cannot be compared.[/quote]
Yeh, they say that, but I don’t buy it: a 1390 then is far more impressive than a 1490 now.[/quote]

That’s not the point. The point is that you cannot compare old SAT scores just as you cannot compare old LSAT scores.[/quote]

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