Things change . . . so get a grip and get some perspective!
Things change. It’s true. And sometimes they change a lot! Before any high school students, or the parents of any high school students, freak out because they might not be accepted at their first choice college . . . relax. Before either of you become convinced that the course of your life is damaged and restricted forever . . . get a grip. Study after study has proven that college is only one life ‘marker’, one among many! Nobody’s ultimate success in life is limited because they didn’t get in to ‘First Choice U’.
There’s another way to prove this point and it might just make anyone too concerned with college rankings feel a little silly. Maybe a lot silly! Let’s take a look at a few of America’s very top colleges. Each of the following schools would be on anyone’s list of the ‘top 50’ colleges in America. Most would be on anyone’s list of the ‘top 25’ colleges and a few would make any list of the ‘top 10’. Each of the schools we selected is known as an “Ivy”, a “New Ivy”, or a “Public Ivy”. Most high performing students would be thrilled to receive an acceptance letter from any or all of them. Moreover, we agree! These are some of the finest colleges in the nation. We’ve listed them, in alphabetical order:
Boston College Boston, MA
Columbia University New York, NY
Emory University Atlanta, GA
University of California at Berkeley Berkeley, CA
University of Florida Gainesville, FL
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA
Washington University in St Louis St Louis, MO
Yale University New Haven, CT
Now let’s step back in time. Not too far back. We’ll return to 1970 when disco was sweeping the nation. The parents of nearly all high school seniors applying to college were alive and kicking in 1970. We wanted to make sure that the date we chose was recent enough that it was appropriate and not so long ago that it became linked with the construction of the pyramids or the Roman Empire. Okay, let’s take a brief look at each of those schools in 1970. What we’re about to reveal isn’t exactly published on their web sites in giant bright colors but it’s all true . . .
Boston College
Today BC is considered one of the “New Ivies” and a spot at the Heights is in very strong demand across the nation and around the world. The Chestnut Hill campus features outstanding residential dorms and a world class football stadium. The student body comes from all 50 states and 100 other countries. But, in 1970, the vast majority of the Boston College student body was from the immediate Boston area. For strong high school students it was a popular ‘safety school’. To many, it was the place you didn’t want to go unless you were rejected everywhere else. There was no annual nationally televised football game with Notre Dame. BC’s biggest football rival at the time was Holy Cross. There were so few dorm rooms available to students that freshmen living within a certain number of miles of the Chestnut Hill campus were required to commute as day students! And BC football legend Doug Flutie? He was an unknown eight year old kid in Florida nicknamed “the wee one”.
Columbia University
This Ivy League powerhouse is often thought of as a place high powered high school students might go on their way to a successful Wall St career. For several years it has had one of the lowest acceptance rates in the country. For at least one recent year it was the single most difficult college to be accepted at in America. In 1970, things were just a bit different. The Columbia campus was the scene of violent student riots and protest demonstrations beginning in 1968 and continuing through the 1970’s. The smell of tear gas on campus was not unfamiliar! Columbia was considered a weak link in the Ivy League and it was generally accepted that much reasonable education had ceased at the Morningside Heights campus for large chunks of time during this period. Hardly headed for Wall St, many Columbia graduates of this era were entirely unwelcome in mainstream corporate America.
Emory University
Today Emory is recognized as one of the prestigious “New Ivies”. Its faculty boasts such luminaries as former President Jimmy Carter, popular television medical authority Dr. Sanjay Gupta, best selling author Salman Rushdie, and even His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Bolstered by an endowment of more than $4 billion, one of the largest in the world, Emory has built an amazing campus during the past several years. Again, things were just a bit different back in 1970. Emory was an excellent regional school but that ‘region’ was pretty much Georgia, Florida and oddly enough Long Island, NY! Mention Emory back then and most people thought you were referring to Embry Riddle, an aeronautical school. The Woodruff gift of more than $100 million in Coca Cola stock, the single largest gift ever made to a college at that time, wouldn’t occur for several years. The introduction of Diet Coke which would catapult the value of the gift into the stratosphere wouldn’t come until a year or two after that. Without the money, the campus was a faint shadow of the remarkable community which exists in the Atlanta suburbs today. The highly valued association with the nearby and now world famous Carter Center didn’t exist because the Carter Center itself didn’t exist. And former President Jimmy Carter . . . now a visiting Emory professor? Well in 1970, Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer in Plains, GA who was thinking about getting involved with politics.
University of California at Berkeley
Today, a diploma from this famous “Public Ivy” is one of the most sought after and respected pieces of paper on the planet. The competition for a spot in the freshman class of this west coast powerhouse is intense. But Jack Bauer, the main character on “24” and fictional Berkeley alum would hardly recognize the Berkeley campus of 1970. From 1969 through much of the 1970’s, the Berkeley campus was the scene of constant political protest. The protest demonstrations sometimes evolved into violent riots. During one of these Berkeley riots some 10,000 students and other members of the Berkeley community battled nearly 3,000 armed police and California National Guardsmen. It’s difficult to accomplish too much in the way of education when you watch your classmates beaten or shot on campus. Television reports of the violence were broadcast to every living room in America. The beautiful and peaceful campus that attracts so many serious students today was very different in 1970.
University of Florida
A diploma from this highly regarded “Public Ivy” is a badge of honor today. The Gator Nation has received widespread acclaim as it earned two national championships in basketball and two more in football during a brief four year span. Its academics are just as high powered as its athletics and UF now boasts more National Merit Scholars than nearly any other university. Fewer than one in three highly qualified applicants are accepted each year at this increasingly ‘national’ and ‘international’ campus. Of course you might not recognize the current UF during a visit in 1970. Back then, nearly all moderately qualified candidates were accepted and the letters UF weren’t likely to be found on any college rankings except perhaps ‘top party schools’. Of course the now acclaimed athletic program was considered an SEC laughing stock back then. The idea of a national champion UF football team would have brought blank stares or immediate laughter. 1970 was before the state became serious, increased funding and made UF its ‘flagship’ university in order to stem the brain drain of bright Floridians to out of state schools. How different would the impressive Gainesville campus have been? Well, in 1970, believe it or not, some 200 university buildings and structures on campus today . . . didn’t exist!
University of Pennsylvania
This Ivy League powerhouse is routinely ranked at the very top of America’s ‘super elite’ universities. The gorgeous urban campus has found a place within a restored and revitalized Philadelphia. With graduates such as Donald Trump, a UPenn diploma is worth more than its weight in gold for graduates entering the corporate world. Of course getting that diploma is quite a task because UPenn only accepts a tiny fraction of the super qualified students who apply each year. But it wasn’t exactly the same situation in 1970. At the time, the UPenn campus was riddled with crime, often serious. UPenn’s relationship with the surrounding urban neighborhood was contentious and Philadelphia seemed to be headed in an unstoppable downward spiral. It was generally acknowledged that UPenn was the ‘bottom of the barrel’ within the Ivy League. Among the academic community, rumors circulated that UPenn would soon be ‘dropped’ from the prestigious Ivy League and replaced with a more appropriate university such as Colgate.
Washington University in St Louis
Could there be a ‘hotter’ college in America today? Wash U is one of the nation’s most popular college destinations. Recognized as a “New Ivy”, this Midwest powerhouse is attracting top students from every state and from around the globe. Each spring, a select few of the country’s top high school seniors celebrate after receiving one of the most sought after acceptance letters. The campus has become so popular, diverse and progressive that it is the most common site for US Presidential debates. But in 1970 it was a different story. Wash U had been established as a Midwest response to the well known colleges back east. It was founded on old time values and changed little for a century. Although well known as a socially progressive college today . . . in 1970 it was quite a different story. A campus visitor at that time would have been surprised to meet many African American alumni. The very first Wash U class to include African Americans didn’t graduate until 1956! As for its current national and international acclaim, back in 1970 Wash U was little known beyond the borders of Missouri and the Midwest. Things certainly change!
Yale University
Ask anyone, anywhere, anytime, to name the five greatest colleges in the world and I’ll bet you $100 that the list includes Yale. Yale isn’t just a great university . . . it’s an icon among great universities. The very name ‘Yale’ defines everything that is excellent about a college education. Certainly that couldn’t have been very different back in 1970? Believe it or not . . . it was. A Yale diploma was still highly desirable and Yale was still one of the most recognized colleges in the world; that’s true. But delivering the ‘all around’ excellence as a university for which Yale is now known? Definitely not. Today, the New Haven campus is well known as one of the world’s most diverse campuses. Excellence and outstanding accomplishment are the credentials of every student on campus. Not so back in 1970. Since Yale didn’t officially reject a policy of Numerus Clausus until 1966, a full class of honestly accepted Yale freshmen didn’t graduate until 1970. Exactly what is Numerus Clausus? It’s a policy which the Yale admissions office, along with other top colleges, used to severely limit the admission of talented students unless they were white, Christian and of good social standing. A few African American and Jewish students were admitted but their number on campus was deliberately reduced in favor of less talented but ‘more desirable’ students. Of course this policy applied primarily to men. In 1970, there were no women in the senior class because the very first woman ever admitted to Yale as an undergraduate, Amy Solomon, was still a sophomore! That’s right, until 1969, half of the most talented high school students in America were officially rejected at Yale simply because they were women.
Okay, so that’s a quick . . . and surprising . . . trip back in time to eight of today’s ‘top colleges’. Does that give you just a little bit of perspective? The acceptance letter you pray for today might seem quite a bit less important or prestigious twenty years from now. And that college at the bottom of your list? Well, it might just be the hottest school in America by the time your kids are completing their applications a few years from now!
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