I hadn't thought about the international angle. The piece about UW is certainly sobering.

Quote
In other words, it isn't just the US population expansion which is fueling this trend. It's that US residents are often competing for FEWER spots at top universities, among a cohort which has easily tripled in size.

So you're saying that there are 3 times as many strong applicants as there used to be, or that 3 times as many students apply, or...? Are there numbers on this anywhere? I'm not intending to sound challenging. I'm just interested in the hard numbers...

Quote
I don't think we all applied at the same time. I applied to colleges in the late 1990's, not the 80's, for example.

True. (I went to college in the '90s as well. From what everyone seems to say, I'd be lucky to get into Podunk College now. I actually didn't take any science classes my last two years of HS, and I never took calculus. I didn't take every AP class I was eligible for. Not much on leadership, either, though I had some unusual extracurriculars.) I suppose this also makes one ask: WHEN did this change? Was it gradual, or more sudden?