Anonymous wrote:1990
3.95
1480
Cornell accepted
Princeton denied
Dartmouth denied
Delaware honors (free tuition/free r&b/stipend) attended
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:HS class of 2000
4.86 weighted GPA, straight As, IB diploma, valedictorian of 800
1530 SAT, 800 writing
Some ECs but nothing award-level
Accepted: Columbia, Georgetown, NYU, BU (Trustee Scholarship - full ride), Chicago, Penn, Berkeley
Rejected: Stanford
Waitlist: Harvard
where did you go?
Anonymous wrote:HS class of 2000
4.86 weighted GPA, straight As, IB diploma, valedictorian of 800
1530 SAT, 800 writing
Some ECs but nothing award-level
Accepted: Columbia, Georgetown, NYU, BU (Trustee Scholarship - full ride), Chicago, Penn, Berkeley
Rejected: Stanford
Waitlist: Harvard
Anonymous wrote:1989
SAT. Verbal 790. Math 600
3.7 or so
No ECs my parents were poor and I had to work 30-40 hours a week
Accepted
WI Madison Honors
Hamilton
Colgate
Smith
Tufts
UVA
Attended UVA out of state as offered most money
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is kinda interesting both in terms of what was needed for admittance then vs now, and also how some colleges have changed. (Several posters from 1980s were accepted to uva but denied/WL at William and Mary!) it also shows that the system was pretty random in the past, too.
Things started changing in the 1990s, especially the late 1990s. Population of US is much bigger now but the same number of colleges and universities. The past was much more regionally focused while schools today are much more national. The Ivy Leagues and elite LACs didn't carry the same mystique they currently do; it was a much more self-selective pool of applicants largely drawn from the upper middle classes and especially those whose families had a tradition of going to private colleges. Most of the country, especially outside the east coast, viewed getting into the flagship state university as all was needed for a great education. SAT scores themselves have been reweighted several times. The change to electronic applications rather than hand written essays made it much easier to apply to multiple colleges. It snowballed from there.
+1
The system needs to get away from prep and culled information, but it will never happen. There are simply too many applicants.
This. Your kids are now competing with tens of thousands of wealthy foreign applicants each year. That really didn't start to ramp up until after 2000 or thereabouts. There was so much less competition prior to 2000.
Agreed. My Ivy had a few international students in the late 1990s but today it has far more. Student body is still the same size. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what it means for domestic applicants without major hooks.
Bullshit. It's still only 5% overseas students at Ivies, collectively.
Anonymous wrote:800M/690L
Upper 700s on SAT IIs
National awards
Leadership
IB Diploma
3.98 GPA
Weighted rank #5
Strong alumni interview
Accepted to everywhere (MIT, Duke, Cornell, bunch of other places)
Rejected Stanford (I didn't apply early binding and 3 people from my hugh school were accepted in the binding round).