What was it like being an Ivy League student in the 90's? (All Ivy Alumni are welcome to answer)?

Question

I am currently pursuing a master's degree in Psychology at the Harvard Extension School (not to get mixed up with Harvard College or The Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences) and I ran into some alumni at a coffee shop in Houston.

They noticed my Harvard Jacket and told me they went to Harvard back in the 90's early 2000's. I was thrilled because I've always wanted to know if getting into the Ivies was harder back then than it is today so I asked them a bunch of questions. They both told me "no", in fact, one of them went back to Harvard for their master's a re-graduated in 2018, and told me college was harder now in comparison. Could be for various reasons (e.g. higher tuition, more competition etc.)

I guess as someone who has used technology in school for so many years, its easy for me to imagine college being a lot harder in the 90's, but nobody has told me that was the case. I suppose any Alumni (60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's) can answer, but I was wondering if anyone thinks Ivy league schools were harder back then???

Anonymous · Answer

I think admission is easier now, particularly at Harvard Extension.  Apparently the requirements/expectations have been lowered.  But here is my specific concern - you are a candidate for a Master's in Psychology, and you feel the need to post "questions" indicating your need for ratification/congratulations.  Something isn't right about your "questions."
.
Me? Cornell.

random_man · Answer

I went to Cornell and graduated in the mid-90s. I would say it's probably harder to get in today. Even I didn't get in when I applied to their MBA program in 2009, and I graduated with honors.

As far as the difficulty of the courses, It's hard to compare, since I only had one undergraduate experience. But I certainly found it challenging. I had fun also, but I definitely spent a lot of time studying. I would imagine the difficulty level is probably about the same.

I can say it was definitely harder to do research back then. The internet was just coming out and was nothing like it is today. You basically had to go to the library and pore through books and journals to get information.

? · Answer

My first degree was in the 80's, and I ended up doing another degree in the 10's.  The level of effort was about the same, just instead of spending an hour in the library 1980 you spend and hour reading online articles in 2010.

? · Answer

You've asked two different questions- harder to get into, or harder to graduate from. There is much more competition to get into elite schools these days. You can look up the the figures on what percentage of applicants are accepted, and it gets smaller and smaller all the time. So yes, it's harder to get into Harvard now. That means the competition within classes is tougher, which might make it harder to be successful in the classes, but otherwise, the classes haven't changed much.

What was it like being an Ivy League student in the 90's? (All Ivy Alumni are welcome to answer)?

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