Universities Weblog

(Source: Lehigh University)

Call it the trickle-down theory. Because the Ivies and other top schools (e.g., Duke, Stanford, Amherst, Williams) have become almost impossible to crack, throngs of students are turning their attention to good institutions formerly dubbed "safety schools." As a result, places like NYU, Rochester, Tufts and BC are now hot. And almost as difficult to crack.

Consider this from the New York Times:

Lehigh University has never been as sought after as Stanford, Yale or Harvard. But this year, awash in applications, it churned out rejection letters and may break more hearts when it comes to its waiting list.

Call them second-tier colleges (a phrase some administrators despise) or call them the new Ivies (this, they can live with). Twenty-five to 40 universities like Lehigh, traditionally perceived as being a notch below the most elite, have seen their cachet climb because of the astonishing competitive crush at the top.

"It's harder to get into Bowdoin now than it was to get into Princeton when I worked there," said William M. Shain, who worked at Princeton in the 1970s and is now dean of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Me. Bowdoin is one of those benefiting from the spillover as the country's most prestigious colleges turn away nearly 9 out of 10 applicants.

At Lehigh, known for its strength in engineering and business, about 12,000 students applied this year. That is a whopping 50 percent increase in applications over seven years ago and more than 10 times the seats available in a freshman class of 1,150. The median SAT score of admitted students has climbed about 10 points a year in recent years, officials said.

Students have generally been quicker to adapt to the new realities than parents have been, many guidance counselors said.

"My sense is that parents are a lot more concerned with how the name is going to look to neighbors and family members, and there is a real sense among parents that it's almost embarrassing if your child has to settle for a lower-level school," said Carolyn Lawrence, a private college counselor and the author of a blog, AdmissionsAdvice.com.

Some students who might have readily won admission to Lehigh, Middlebury College, Colgate University, Pomona College, Emory University or New York University just a few years ago are now relegated to waiting lists, left to confront the long odds that an offer of admission might materialize over the next month.

More trickle-down: Top universities keep pumping out Ph.D.s who face long odds on job placement, especially in the humanities and most social sciences. As a result, academics who a generation or two ago wouldn't have considered teaching at a "safety school" now feel lucky to have the opportunity. So your professors at Tufts and Rochester all sport Harvard and Yale Ph.D.s Keep looking down the food chain and you'll find plenty more.

The Times piece concludes as follows:

High school guidance counselors have become the reality instructors, encouraging students and parents to think more broadly about colleges.

"Now a kid who is applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton is also applying to the Lehighs and Lafayettes," said Brett Levine, director of guidance at Madison High School in New Jersey. "It's the same tier, basically."

No, basically, it's not. It's just that Tier Two is more acceptable to students, and Tier One has become impenetrable.

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