Originally Posted by ultramarina
It seems to me that the Ivies and the other good schools have just as many spots in their freshman classes as they always have, so why is it so much harder to get in now? Why the arms race?
You answered your own question. The population continues to grow, and at the top end applicants are less constrained by geography, so there are more applicants and a lower acceptance rate. One reason for my high-IQ-people-are-more-successful posts is that I wish employers gave more weight to IQ and other standardized tests rather than elite credentials, whose supply is artificially constrained. Harvard could expand its class size if it really wanted to, but a 6% acceptance rate signals its exclusivity.