You don’t want to be working class or a small business owner in the US going forward. With Presidents Biden and Harris promising to direct a larger percentage of American wealth to the credentialed elite, e.g., working in higher education, government, health care, or Big Pharma, Harvard applications are up. “Harvard College Receives Record-High 57,000 Applications, Delays Admissions Release Date” (Crimson):
More than 57,000 students applied for a spot in Harvard College’s Class of 2025, marking a record high and forcing the Admissions Office to push back its decision release date by roughly a week, the office announced Thursday.
The College received roughly 42 percent more applications than last year, when 40,248 students applied for admission to the Class of 2024. This year’s record-high number of applicants comes two years after the Class of 2023 set the previous record with 43,330 applicants.
In theory, this means a 1 in 30 chance of being admitted (2,000 admitted annually). In practice, though, an Asian or white applicant who isn’t an athletic recruit will face much longer odds (see The $70 billion travel sports industry (rich whites and Asians getting their kids into college)).
An aerial photo of the mostly-shut campus (May 2020 by Tony):
Harvard & Princeton and a few other institutions with huge endowments became the most desirable to upper middle class families back in Dec 2007. Thanks to Senator Charles Grassley threatening to remove their non-profit tax status if they didn’t start handing out more financial aid, they began offering the most generous aid package out there, far more generous than other competitive schools. So a family making about $200K only pays about 10% of their net income per year toward tuition, room, board & misc charges like the athletic fee — the best deal of the 21st century (when rack rate is above $75K per year)! Incentive for these families to increase their consumption on luxuries if they’re at the high end of the income max. (If they worry that younger siblings won’t get into a top school like Harvard, they might re-think this strategy) Combined with $50K loan forgiveness prospectively, there is a near-total free lunch!
The Ivy League is really an awesome all-around athletic league, but it’s easy to see that they mostly favor the running sports. They run this, they run that — my goodness, they run everything! They just run, and run, and run! If you want to run, don’t think about going anywhere else! Runners!
Question: “What do you do with your Ivy League degree?”
Answer: “I run things with it! Get out of my way! Here I come!”
I just keep seeing Turchin everywhere. I’m probably too impressionable, but it’s hard to miss.
What’s also amazing (or not so amazing) is that the torrential increase was, I think, totally anticipatory. Donald Trump was *not* going to be a two term President, and I thought so early in 2020. That sentiment of mine just crystallized as the year went on. It just wasn’t going to be allowed, and all these folks knew that.