>>My SATs were pretty good, but I think my getting into Penn had a lot to do with being 15 when I graduated high school.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>15 ! I had just turned 17 and in retrospect that was about 5 years too young <s>

Yeah, well, they didn't know what to do with kids like me back then, so they skipped us over grades. I skipped 3rd entirely, and did a special program for grades 6-8 in two years. I was the youngest in my graduating class by 6 months.

> I know that in 1964 a 900-1000 SAT wouldn't have got you past the first cut at any kind of competitive school, and I hear that today the competition is much more fierce, but I guess there are many other factors at play now (they kept it simple in the 60s - grades, SATs, legacies and heavy donations)

Again, I can't speak to the new scores. But what I seemed to see 4-8 years ago was that the really top schools were averaging around 1300-1400.


>I was pretty oblivious to all that as just going to college out of my high school put you in the 14% of the grad class to do so and most of that was on athletic scholarships (and didn't result in graduation)

Very different kind of school than I went to, then. I was at Philly's all-girls academic magnet, which was a college prep high school. No business track or vo-tech at all (though typing was offered). I don't remember the stats anymore, but pretty much every girl was expected to go on to college, though many stayed home and commuted to Temple and other local schools.

> College counseling was almost all done by the football coach. <g>

Despite the expectation, the college counseling we got was terrible. Had I had a real college counselor, I suspect I would have gone to a small, liberal arts college. Can't say Penn didn't do well by me, though.

Tamar