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I don't think schools used to be more selective... It seems more like the selectivity shifted from being self-selective (only highly apt/able people would apply
by creatornator 7y ago
I don't think schools used to be more selective... It seems more like the selectivity shifted from being self-selective (only highly apt/able people would apply) to selectivity on the part of the universities themselves.
My father says when he went to Columbia University in the 80's the acceptance rate was >60%. Nowadays Columbia is 7%. It's a similar story with most other colleges. My university used to accept pretty much anyone and now it's <%20. Not sure how that can be spun to say universities are less selective now. Maybe there are more universities, so some of them are less selective than others were in the past. But if you track the same universities over time, they have vastly decreased acceptance rates over time.
- vonmoltke 7y agoThe state school I went to was automatic admission when I applied in 1998 (meet the SAT/GPA requirements, you're in). Now even they have an acceptance rate that is somewhere on the 50s.
- geodel 7y agoBut how many students really applied in those days. If application rates were low, which I think is very likely, then selection rates can simply be higher.
- mountainofdeath 7y agoI remember reading somewhere that just a generation ago, Ivy League schools where about as selective as flagship state schools are today. So many people want to get a brand name education (domestic and international) that it pushes the acceptance rate toward 0. The median standardized test school for successful applications is near perfect.