As reported by Bloomberg, Ivy League schools are inundated with applications and are seeing admittance rates drop substantially. Is this a signal that "degree dilution" (i.e. a college degree has become the new high school diploma in the marketplace) is forcing people to differentiate themselves by attending more "prestigious" institutions? Or is Bloomberg right, and it's just easier to apply everywhere these days?
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Degrees are being diluted. Just look at the UK, everyone and their dog has a degree be that from a distinguished Cambridge graduate or a Tourism Major from East Anglia University
Yale actually experienced a decrease in applications.
Source: http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2010/01/21/bucking-tr…
[quote=unqwertyfied]Yale actually experienced a decrease in applications.
Source: http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2010/01/21/bucking-tr…]
Yale's applications are going to absolutely plummet after all that's happened on their campus this year. Some kid just jumped off of the Empire State yesterday.
This "Degree Dilution" is only amplified to those of us in the IBanking industry on both the S&T, IB, M&A side.
Consultants and accountant, as well as people in corporate Finance and PWM are getting good jobs at good banks with degrees from all different schools.
And then there's the rest of the world out there too that isn't Finance.....there's no degree dilution in those areas either.
Don't know about degree dilution but I definitely know with the scores and grades I had when I was a high-school student I would definitely not be able to get into the same schools I got accepted into now.
In 1993 Wharton's average SAT score was 1340 (out of 1600).
Think about that.
Was Wharton not as big on the Street back then or were the SATs harder? (Or did smart people not want to do business?)
The Street was probably much smaller, and smart people probably wanted to do something unrelated to business. The first year the US World & News Rankings came out, UPenn was ranked 16th. Mean SAT scores were about 15 points lower than they are now, but thats not that much of a difference.
It always annoys me whenever outsiders insist on grouping the Ivies together as if they represented the top schools in the country. The Ivies are 3 top schools, 2 good schools, and 3 wannabee clown colleges. People who end up at Brown or Cornell are just talentless bozos who couldn't cut it at good schools and decide to throw their parents' money away just so they can say they are part of the Ivy League.
Current high school senior here. I waltzed into Columbia (likely letter, constant emails/calls/letters), and was rejected from Brown
Anyway the answer to this question is simple, people apply to more schools now. 10 is probably the norm
it doesn't help that (over the past few years) admissions % have been going down. This only makes every kid apply to even more schools so that they'll get in somewhere, thus exacerbating the problem...
part of it might be dilution, part of it also might be what was mentioned in the above post (applying to lots of places in hopes that you get into at least one). Another big part though is I think due to the admissions offices at these types of places. They all will encourage ANYONE to apply to their school, referring them to their "holistic admissions process" as a sign that they have a chance of getting into harvard... despite having an 1700 on the SAT and a 3.3 gpa. More applications => lower admit rate, which is good for everyone's rankings.
I feel like things have certainly gotten more competitive, but not as much as one might guess from just looking at the admissions rate. Sure SAT scores might be up a bit, which is probably more of a reflection of #hours spent at princeton review than anything else.
Sounds like someone here feels insecure about the school they go/went to...
Back on topic: maybe there are just more "smart" people out there now, which gives evidence that the education system in the U.S. is actually working
HAHAHA. Thanks for that. I actually shot iced tea out my nose when I read that.
@Edmundo:
Why? You don't think so?
Aside from the fact that the population has increased, the education system has provided "middle-income" families with a chance to actually apply to those types of schools. Think about the early 1900s when only rich whites could afford an education like that; now its a free for all because the standard has been raised.
You know, I really haven't devoted too much thought to this to be perfectly honest. I look at how the standards have been lowered in even the good public schools (cursive writing no longer taught, such a heavy reliance on phonics that kids misspell everything through high school graduation, etc...) and the overall declining literacy rate in all 50 states and I have a really hard time believing that the schools are putting out a superior product.
Back at the turn of the century, a college degree really meant something (because it was only for the privileged and truly gifted). Now your average garbage truck driver has one, and it's led to the dilution that is causing the problem we're talking about in this post.
Again, I'm no expert.
It's definitely easier to apply too with the common application and such. I think a lot of kids just figure why not give it a shot.
Maybe they should start charging application fees?
Aren't they already?
I don't know, do they? If not, maybe they should. Could be a mini-profit center for the school and would cut down on kids taking the shotgun approach to the application process.
I'm 40, bro. The next thing I apply for will be Social Security.
I wouldn't say there are more "smart" people. I think parents are getting more ridiculous about pushing their kids to get into good schools and will do anything to help them get a better SAT score. I probably spent a total of 3 hours preparing for the SATs. Plenty of kids spend close to a 100 or more these days.
There is application fees and its about a couple hundred bucks. So Ivy Leagues definitely make their money from application fees.
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