Big change in the number of applications in general, for one thing. Few kids applied to more than five or so schools, now applying to 10+ is common.

Also, the number of high school graduates has increased significantly, from about 2.7 million in the late 1980s/early 1990s to about 3.7 million today. That’s an extra million kids in the possible student pool.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in my day (HS class of '90), Michigan OOS was a safety. They took literally everyone from my HS who applied, even kids with a 2.5.

I don't know where you went to school, but when I graduated from HS in 1988, Michigan was only a safety for accomplished students. They definitely weren't taking anyone from my very good public high school with a 2.5, though it was of course far less competitive than it is now.

Wisconsin wasn't easy back then either.

UNC, Michigan and UVA were very tough admits for an OOS student.

Schools that are much harder now are Ohio State, Maryland, Georgia, Florida and Pitt.

It's worth pointing out that the distribution of SAT scores is different now than it was in the 90s. It used to be much, much rarer to get over 1450+. But to the OP's point, at my private school in PA in the 90s, everyone with decent grades (like 3.5 GPA or higher, but there wasn't really grade inflation) and some extracurriculars was pretty much assured of getting into Penn.

Anonymous wrote:Back in my day (HS class of '90), Michigan OOS was a safety. They took literally everyone from my HS who applied, even kids with a 2.5.

I don't know where you went to school, but when I graduated from HS in 1988, Michigan was only a safety for accomplished students. They definitely weren't taking anyone from my very good public high school with a 2.5, though it was of course far less competitive than it is now.

Here are 1990 acceptance rates:

Stanford University: average SAT 1300, admission rate15%

Harvard University: average SAT 1360, admission rate 15%

Yale University: average SAT 1370, admission rate 15%

Princeton University: average SAT 1339, admission rate 16%

University of California Berkeley: average SAT 1181, admission rate 37%

Dartmouth College: average SAT 1310, admission rate 20%

Duke University: average SAT 1306, admission rate 21%

University of Chicago: average SAT 1291, admission rate 45%

University of Michigan: average SAT 1190, admission rate 52%

Brown University: average SAT 1320, admission rate 20%

Cornell University: average SAT 1375, admission rate 29%

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: average SAT 1370, admission rate 26%

Univ. of N. Caroline Chapel Hill: average SAT 1250, admission rate 33%

Rice University: average SAT 1335, admission rate 30%

University of Virginia: average SAT 1230, admission rate 34%

Johns Hopkins University: average SAT 1303, admission rate 53%

Northwestern University: average SAT 1240, admission rate 41%

Columbia University: average SAT 1295. admission rate 25%

University of Pennsylvania: average SAT 1300, admission rate 35%

Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: average SAT 1132, admission rate 70%

California Institute of Technology: average SAT 1440, admission rate 28%

College of William and Mary: average SAT 1206, admission rate 26%

University of Wisconsin Madison: average SAT 1079, admission rate 78%

Washington University: average SAT 1189, admission rate 62%

Anonymous wrote:All colleges in the 80s and 90s were extremely easy admits compared to now. Focusing on Penn is silly. They were all like this.

Stanford’s class of “89 had a 10% admittance rate. Not so easy in 1985.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t this pretty much the case for most colleges that acceptance rates were higher back when us parents attended as compared to the lower acceptance rates for current students? The entire college admissions landscape is different for this generation.

Of course. The Ivies only started admitting women in the late 1960s-early 1980s. So men weren't competing against half the population, and you see admissions rates drop when women started to apply. And now with the Internet, it's so much easier to apply to a college across the country or across the world. You're not looking at colleges that are only within driving range anymore. That's driven competition up a ton at elite colleges.

Not Cornell. It was founded as a co-ed institution in 1865.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in my day (HS class of '90), Michigan OOS was a safety. They took literally everyone from my HS who applied, even kids with a 2.5.

Finished high school in 1989 and this was not the case out our high school. I was a public school kid in PA.

Also not true in 1985. We had a really bright student who had graduated from our public Western PA HS come to our school to talk to us about the Michigan Honors College. At the time I remember being baffled that anyone would go so far away, but being impressed that this girl made a conscious choice. But it was only six hours of highway. I later ended up going to Michigan for grad school after a rigorous review of options.

Back then you wouldn't have gotten into PSU or Pitt main campuses with a 2.5. Maybe a 3.2 or so would have gotten you a summer school admit or freshman year at a branch with transfer contingent on performance.

Below 3.0 was for schools with acceptance rates in the 80% range.

PP's friends were probably athletes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many parents in my kids' private school flex that they are UPenn legacy or double legacy or even triple legacy and constantly talking about it like it was a big deal. I think UPenn had one of the highest admission rates of the lower ivies in the 90s. Cornell was around 30%. It must be a shock to the system that even UPenn has a single digit acceptance rate now, and legacy is no longer an auto admit like it was back in the day.

In the 80s and 90s, people are going to Bingham and CUNY.

?? Never heard of them.

Because you are not a New Yorker.

Anonymous wrote:Back in my day (HS class of '90), Michigan OOS was a safety. They took literally everyone from my HS who applied, even kids with a 2.5.

Finished high school in 1989 and this was not the case out our high school. I was a public school kid in PA.

Anonymous wrote:These kind of posts are dumb. It was a different era, before the common app. Every application was a production, and we all knew what was what with every school.

The common app and shotgunning didn't exist back then. Back in the early 90s, you'd apply to maybe five schools.

+1. Applying to a bunch of schools cost a bunch of money. I'd never heard of anyone applying to more than five schools -- even 5 was a lot.

These kind of posts are dumb. It was a different era, before the common app. Every application was a production, and we all knew what was what with every school.

The common app and shotgunning didn't exist back then. Back in the early 90s, you'd apply to maybe five schools.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I hope this isn't news to you, but being a legacy isn't any sort of flex. It just means you have extra privilege due to your parents.

facts

All colleges in the 80s and 90s were extremely easy admits compared to now. Focusing on Penn is silly. They were all like this.

yup it's now harder for my kid to get into Occidental college now (roughly 35%) than UPenn back in my day (roughly 45%).