Anonymous wrote:Title pretty much sums it up, but when you first started paying attention to college rankings as a parent did you have any moments of shock when once a safety (for many) is now a reach (for many)…off the top of my head Northeastern and UofF come to mind.

Any others?

This just a thread for the haters.

List away anyways.

Northeastern is a shocker. I went to BU and that was my safety school after not getting into Tufts and BC. Northeastern was like a SAAAAAFETY school, if you were a B/C student and full pay you went there over like regional schools most people had not heard of. When I went to BU in the early 2000s it was in the 80s and Northeastern was not even in the top 100 or just at 100. BC was (and still is) in the 40s and I think Tufts was top 25 and has since dropped. I am so pleased BU is now ranked essentially the same as those schools -- being in management, art,s and sciences, and engineering were HARD programs even back then.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern
Vanderbilt
Any of the SEC schools for OOS kids
NYU
USC (when I took the SATs they were doing the stuff Chicago does now- sending the biggest and most mailings of anyone and generally acting desperate)

Nope. Vanderbilt has been competitive and difficult to get into for a long time.

+1 There's considerable ignorance (and prejudice) showing up in this thread. No surprise, given it's DCUM.

Nope. I was HS class of 1998 and the top kids at my school used Vanderbilt as a safety because it gave a ton of merit aid.

Same -- HS class of 1993. Add NYU to that list too. Lots of merit. And U Miami.

In terms of change in competitiveness, BU, Northeastern, UF off the top of my head.

Anonymous wrote:SAT was different in the 80s. Harder. You rarely heard people hitting 1400+ SAT.

I remember 1200-1300 was a solid SAT score in the 80s (put you in play anywhere). So the score report doesn't mean much...BUT--yes it is much more selective everywhere due to common app, number of applicants (not as many people went onto 4-year colleges), holistic approach and test optional.

The Verbal section had some particularly difficult parts back then. I remember the antonyms section, where the tougher questions at the end entailed a word you had never seen before, and then 4 answer choices which were all words you had never seen before. Guess which answer choice is the antonym. If you somehow get it right, congrats, but if you guess and get it wrong, we are deducting points from your test score.

Anonymous wrote:GWU- all they did was raise tuition and it became more popular.

GWU has always been relatively expensive. But no matter what they charge, they remain "couldn't get into Georgetown".

Anonymous wrote:When I was doing my research as a high school student, I had this giant book of colleges (not Fiske, it had many more schools included) and they had lists of schools at the front by "selectivity", major, etc. and I literally looked up and read the descriptions for all the "most selective" colleges.

I remember that book! But I can't remember exactly what it was called or who produced it. I think it's grouping by selectivity category was much better method than the phony "exact numerical ranking" of USNWR.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern
Vanderbilt
Any of the SEC schools for OOS kids
NYU
USC (when I took the SATs they were doing the stuff Chicago does now- sending the biggest and most mailings of anyone and generally acting desperate)

Nope. Vanderbilt has been competitive and difficult to get into for a long time.

+1 There's considerable ignorance (and prejudice) showing up in this thread. No surprise, given it's DCUM.

Nope. I was HS class of 1998 and the top kids at my school used Vanderbilt as a safety because it gave a ton of merit aid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Purdue, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Auburn,
Georgia, North Carolina, Clemson, Florida.

Penn State is HUGE at our highly ranked public with the top stat kids. Two chose it over another top 20 school they got in to (Cornell and Duke). Maybe it's just at our school, but the trend seems to be that they go to Penn State because their APs transfer and they start out as sophomores. Most of these kids are getting an integrated masters in four years. It's spreading like wildfire seemingly.

How much merit aid did they get?

For the kids that got into Schreyers Honors College, they get 5K per year. Some of them are also merit finalists so an additional 2500 a year. Tuition is 17K and room and board about the same (we are in state). So that brings tuition down to about 10K per year for in state students. Also once you live off campus sophomore year the room and board goes way down. Our counselor seems to make sure that all of those top stat kids apply to the honors college (it's a TON of essays).

Our son chose Penn State over Cornell because he has 15 APs and he will start as a second semester sophomore. This will allow him to double major AND get an integrated masters at the "normal" pace. He is really excited about it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Purdue, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Auburn,
Georgia, North Carolina, Clemson, Florida.

Penn State is HUGE at our highly ranked public with the top stat kids. Two chose it over another top 20 school they got in to (Cornell and Duke). Maybe it's just at our school, but the trend seems to be that they go to Penn State because their APs transfer and they start out as sophomores. Most of these kids are getting an integrated masters in four years. It's spreading like wildfire seemingly.

How much merit aid did they get?

There is a distinction between schools that were consistently good 30 years ago and are even better/tougher to get into now- Vandy, Holy Cross, Davidson, Notre Dame, Colby, and maybe Georgetown. The other category would be schools that were average and are now stronger more appealing and cost attractive. Such as certain Big 10, SEC schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT was different in the 80s. Harder. You rarely heard people hitting 1400+ SAT.

I remember 1200-1300 was a solid SAT score in the 80s (put you in play anywhere). So the score report doesn't mean much...BUT--yes it is much more selective everywhere due to common app, number of applicants (not as many people went onto 4-year colleges), holistic approach and test optional.

^ the test was very different. The dumbed parts of it down over time.

1500 meant you were a genius and 1600 was rare. Now, so many on DCUM scoring over 1500 (which I take with a grain of salt) So many taking prep courses which were not a thing back in the day. I remember typing my applications for each school on a typewriter and using correction tape.

I applied to 4 and got into 4 schools that I would not get into present day.

I’m surprised everyone is saying UF. I graduated from one of the top hs in FL in the early 2000s. Many of my peers chose UF over Ivy League even back then. It was free! And then they chose more prestigious places for grad school. I had very high stats and it wasn’t my safety school.

Anonymous wrote:Purdue, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Auburn,
Georgia, North Carolina, Clemson, Florida.

Penn State is HUGE at our highly ranked public with the top stat kids. Two chose it over another top 20 school they got in to (Cornell and Duke). Maybe it's just at our school, but the trend seems to be that they go to Penn State because their APs transfer and they start out as sophomores. Most of these kids are getting an integrated masters in four years. It's spreading like wildfire seemingly.

This list of colleges easier to get into/loss of prestige would be much shorter.

Tennessee
VA Tech
Florida
Georgia
Maryland
Wisconsin
Boston U