... and for Yale: Why Bright College Years Never Fade Away

In 1964, when author J. Kirk Casselman applied to Yale College, more than five thousand other secondary school students also applied for admission to one of the 1,300 places in the Yale Class of 1968. Of those applicants, 1,569 were offered admission, for an acceptance ratio of approximately 30 percent. Today, thirty thousand students apply for admission for the same number of places, for an acceptance ratio of just 7 percent.

The drastic change in the college application process results in...