the hardest school to get into in America is now....

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Can you guess before looking below:
























The narrow new distinction, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, was revealed in this year’s Almanac of Higher Education, put out annually by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The 128-page report outlines a plethora of stats and figures about colleges and universities nationwide, from admissions rates to student body growth to cost. The report found Caltech’s acceptance rate last year was a slim 2.7%, while Harvard came in at 3.2%.

On the public school side, the University of California system also landed prominently on the list of most selective institutions. To little surprise, UCLA and UC Berkeley nabbed the No. 1 and No. 2 slots for low admissions acceptance rates, with UC Irvine in Orange County landing at No. 7.

https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/caltech-admissions-hardest-america-19733718.php

[Botany]

1. And where did V.P. Harris get her law degree from?

U.C. San Francisco … I think

[PeaceWave]

6. Hastings is actually a crappy law school. I've often wondered why she went there.

[CoopersDad]

2. Not surprised.

Cal Tech is usually up there.

In 1997, the most exclusive four year colleges according to Time were
Harvard 12%
Juilliard 12%
Cooper Union 13%
U.S. Military Academy 13%

Cal Tech had a 25% acceptance rate that year.
was accepted by and attended the Cooper Union.

It looks to be harder than ever to get into the top schools, much less pay for them.

[Hekate]

3. In part this is because the population has boomed & public university campuses can't keep up

This is especially true in California, where additional campuses have been added at great cost, & are still outpaced by population growth. And large numbers of students (and their parents) still want to get into UCLA and UC Berkeley as freshmen rather than any other UC campus.

If it were not for the desire to maintain some kind of diversity, UC could populate its entire freshman class with the top 1% of high school applicants (last time I read up on it — I’m sure one of our persistent fact checkers will be along to let me know if I got it wrong )

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

5. and American institutions get massive numbers of applications - domestic and international. ucla get almost 175K!!!

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

4. in the past, applying meant filling out a hard copy application, mailing it, paying a fee by check.. NOW it's online

people apply from all over the world. Some colleges used a joint application. People are applying to more instituions. The number of applications increasing has dropped the admit rate.

[CoopersDad]

7. I remember applying, pre computer, pre-Internet.

I hadn't taken the SAT and ran out to take the last one available before it would be too late.
Four years after high school, I probably scored better than had I taken it earlier.

Then Cooper required a portfolio of existing work and a 2-D composition and other materials be shipped to them with some fee, I'm sure. I was on the waiting list at first then accepted.

Good thing because it was the only college to which I applied, back up plan would have been to stay at the California College of Arts and Crafts.

These days I work with student interns, they typically apply to several colleges and hope for the best, a few are excepted to several.

Interesting times.

[valleyrogue]

8. "Selective" doesn't translate into better.

"Selective" means exactly what it says. These "elite" schools limit who can attend by having a limited number of spots in order to create an artificial demand. Ditto for medical schools, ditto for law schools.

It is all a bunch of bunk. Once people get into a "selective" school, they find they don't really differ all that much from "less selective" schools.