[Farm93]

The universal application changed this game.  With the acceptance rates for all of these schools approaching single digits, only a arrogant fool would apply to just one or two.  Yes, the Ivy League schools are very different from each other, but they are more similar to each other than they are to Penn State or Rutgers.

The universal application makes it really easy for kids to apply to 15 or 20 schools, and far easier to apply to several highly selective schools.  I actually wonder how many Stanford applicants and/or Stanford admits from this class applied 5 or more Ivy League schools too.  Applying, and getting accepted, to all of the Ivies is probably rare, but I bet applying to the majority of the schools in the Ivy league is now rather common in these incoming classes.

Many of the people on this board applied to Stanford when the odds were 1 in 6 or better.  Now the odds are 1 in 20.  Given those new odds I can't fault someone for thinking they should apply to 10 or more highly selective schools. Then if by chance a student gets into several schools it would not shock me to learn to that some local paper would run a quick story on the accomplishment.

The universal application changed this game, so it seems unfair to apply 70s, 80s or even 90s application standards to these kids.

[Farm93]

The universal application changed this game.  With the acceptance rates for all of these schools approaching single digits, only a arrogant fool would apply to just one or two.  Yes, the Ivy League schools are very different from each other, but they are more similar to each other than they are to Penn State or Rutgers.

The universal application makes it really easy for kids to apply to 15 or 20 schools, and far easier to apply to several highly selective schools.  I actually wonder how many Stanford applicants and/or Stanford admits from this class applied 5 or more Ivy League schools too.  Applying, and getting accepted, to all of the Ivies is probably rare, but I bet applying to the majority of the schools in the Ivy league is now rather common in these incoming classes.

Many of the people on this board applied to Stanford when the odds were 1 in 6 or better.  Now the odds are 1 in 20.  Given those new odds I can't fault someone for thinking they should apply to 10 or more highly selective schools. Then if by chance a student gets into several schools it would not shock me to learn to that some local paper would run a quick story on the accomplishment.

The universal application changed this game, so it seems unfair to apply 70s, 80s or even 90s application standards to these kids.