Interesting news about Harvard admissions

[George64]

He has a Rensselaer Medal that at first meant 30k/yr off tuition but due to stalling on his part has been upped to 35k.

The offer was only $5000/yr back in 1993, IIRC. Man, even accounting for inflation, they're paying out serious money to Medal winners now.

Back in 1960, I don't remember any financial inducement with the medal.  I came instead to Cornell where tuition was about $1200 per year, among the highest in the country, and room and board another $1000.

[Scersk '97]

Back in 1960, I don't remember any financial inducement with the medal.  I came instead to Cornell where tuition was about $1200 per year, among the highest in the country, and room and board another $1000.

I'll call that number quite a bargain back then, I think. But inflation calculations are so very murky.

The Medal back in '93 also included a waiver of RPI's application fee, so of course I applied.  Safety school, you know.

Still, I've always thought it was a pretty slick program. Why not try to "cherry" pick the math/science nerd of every high school in NYS?

[jtwcornell91]

50+ years ago a Harvard alumnus visited my high school to talk with anyone who showed up and I came away with a few good lines.  Someone asked about study abroad and the rep said that Harvard doesn't support study abroad. "We bring the best scholars in the world to Harvard, so there is no reason to go anywhere else."

I would suspect that hasn't been true for a while, since the entire Let's Go travel book series is written by current Harvard students.  (My cousin was an editor during a summer in Ireland so I guess it wasn't technically a semester abroad.)

[David Harding]

He has a Rensselaer Medal that at first meant 30k/yr off tuition but due to stalling on his part has been upped to 35k.

The offer was only $5000/yr back in 1993, IIRC. Man, even accounting for inflation, they're paying out serious money to Medal winners now.

Back in 1960, I don't remember any financial inducement with the medal.  I came instead to Cornell where tuition was about $1200 per year, among the highest in the country, and room and board another $1000.

When I received the RPI medal as a high school junior in 1967 there was no mention of any benefits.

[Al DeFlorio]

Back in 1960, I don't remember any financial inducement with the medal.  I came instead to Cornell where tuition was about $1200 per year, among the highest in the country, and room and board another $1000.

I'll call that number quite a bargain back then, I think. But inflation calculations are so very murky.

The Medal back in '93 also included a waiver of RPI's application fee, so of course I applied.  Safety school, you know.

Still, I've always thought it was a pretty slick program. Why not try to "cherry" pick the math/science nerd of every high school in NYS?

Harvard just gave a book--about Harvard, of course--to the top male in the junior class at my high school.  Not worth much toward tuition.

[semsox]

seems like people want it both ways.. Do they only except the highest qualified kids? Do they except a mixed pool of kids?  It like if you  go to a HS that has no AP courses and you get to college and some kids come in with 15-20 credits is that fair?

A few weeks ago an in-law cousin whose son is applying to engineering schools spun a tale that I have been doubting. His son's top choice is Cornell with RPI a close second.  (He has a Rensselaer Medal that at first meant 30k/yr off tuition but due to stalling on his part has been upped to 35k.)

We were talking about Cornell and I mentioned that I was amazed that the recent pictures of Cornell Chem E classes look to be 50/50 male/female. The dad stated that many engineering schools are attempting to get a 50/50 mix and that because of the application metrics Cornell is able to accept women as half of their incoming class.

Does anyone reading this know if this is true?

I can't answer the question, but want to note that my ChemE class (2009) was >50% female, so it's not necessarily a recent trend (at least for ChemE).

[Al DeFlorio]

seems like people want it both ways.. Do they only except the highest qualified kids? Do they except a mixed pool of kids?  It like if you  go to a HS that has no AP courses and you get to college and some kids come in with 15-20 credits is that fair?

A few weeks ago an in-law cousin whose son is applying to engineering schools spun a tale that I have been doubting. His son's top choice is Cornell with RPI a close second.  (He has a Rensselaer Medal that at first meant 30k/yr off tuition but due to stalling on his part has been upped to 35k.)

We were talking about Cornell and I mentioned that I was amazed that the recent pictures of Cornell Chem E classes look to be 50/50 male/female. The dad stated that many engineering schools are attempting to get a 50/50 mix and that because of the application metrics Cornell is able to accept women as half of their incoming class.

Does anyone reading this know if this is true?

At least half women, I'm told by engineering school fundraiser.  Times have changed.

My question is whether the 50/50 admission rate is achieved by preference given to women.

For how many years did engineering, architecture, graduate business, law and medical schools give "preference" to men?

[billhoward]

For how many years did engineering, architecture, graduate business, law and medical schools give "preference" to men?

Vet school is something like 4-1 women. It was even circa 1980.

Cornell Chronicle says, among top quarter of male and female vet wage-earners, men make $100,000 more than women. Not clear what the overall average is. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/03/women-veterinarians-earn-less-men-study-finds

[Swampy]

At the 2018 reunion the administration made a big deal about the incoming Engineering class be >50% women. Around the same time I read about a dean at Tufts, who was on the market for a university presidency, was getting kudos for raising the female share in Tuft's engineering school to 15%. Then again, back in the day (1960s), IIRC, Cornell's Engineering school had 5 women and the ratio of men to women overall was 6:1.

[Al DeFlorio]

At the 2018 reunion the administration made a big deal about the incoming Engineering class be >50% women. Around the same time I read about a dean at Tufts, who was on the market for a university presidency, was getting kudos for raising the female share in Tuft's engineering school to 15%. Then again, back in the day (1960s), IIRC, Cornell's Engineering school had 5 women and the ratio of men to women overall was 6:1.

The engineering class of 1965 had one woman, and her last name was Cornell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Tarter

Overall ratio:3.5 to 1

[Trotsky]

Engineering felt very male dominated in the early 80s.  There was quite a bit of Hum Ec MRS degree husband-shopping.

Glad to see that shit's gone the way of a competitive Cornell football team.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Engineering felt very male dominated in the early 80s.

It was.  My ChemE class was 15% women which was the highest percentage to date.  Class of '83 was going all the way up to 20%!  ::whistle::

[billhoward]

Engineering felt very male dominated in the early 80s.  There was quite a bit of Hum Ec MRS degree husband-shopping.

Glad to see that shit's gone the way of a competitive Cornell football team.

I look in the dictionary under spit take and there's your post.

[tda; thread drift alert] As for husband-shopping, there's a Princeton mother who generated waves in 2013 saying how important it was for her Princeton daughter to spend 4 years looking for a suitable life partner, and start freshman not junior or senior year because women't "shouldn't date younger."

"As freshman women, you have four classes of men to choose from. Every year, you lose the men in the senior class, and you become older than the class of incoming freshman men. So, by the time you are a senior, you basically have only the men in your own class to choose from, and frankly, they now have four classes of women to choose from. Maybe you should have been a little nicer to these guys when you were freshmen?"

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/01/princeton-mom-letter-to-female-students/2041903/

[billhoward]

At the 2018 reunion the administration made a big deal about the incoming Engineering class be >50% women. Around the same time I read about a dean at Tufts, who was on the market for a university presidency, was getting kudos for raising the female share in Tuft's engineering school to 15%. Then again, back in the day (1960s), IIRC, Cornell's Engineering school had 5 women and the ratio of men to women overall was 6:1.

The best engineering schools draw the most talented applicants and every person who gets in is more than qualified to do the work. That observation can also be made about Ivy League athletes: their SATs or ACTs may be fractionally lower than the incoming class average but still high enough that they can do the work. Plus the coaches do a better job, perhaps, than academic advisors in tracking how each player is doing throughout the year.

Jeff Teat was in the freakin' Arts College. You don't do that unless you're up to the work.

[arugula]

On the legacy point, I was always under the impression that legacy was only meaningful if the parent alumnus also wrote a big check, like 6 figures big. Anyone have any insight?