‘We are the most rejected generation'
Roughly 54,000 students applied to be part of the Harvard class of 2028, and roughly 1,950 were accepted. That means that about 52,050 were rejected. PHOTO: SOPHIE PARK/NYTIMES
Not long ago, I was at Williams College, speaking with a fascinating and terrifically observant senior named David Wignall. We were talking about what it was like to be young these days, and he made a point that I'd never considered. 'We are the most rejected generation,' he said.
He's right. He pointed to the admission rates at elite universities. By 1959, about half of American college applicants applied to just one school. But now you meet students who feel that they have to apply to 20 or 30 colleges in the hopes that there will be one or two that won't reject them. In the past two decades, the number of students applying to the 67 most selective colleges has tripled, to nearly two million a year, while the number of places at those schools hasn't come close to keeping up. Roughly 54,000 students applied to be part of the Harvard class of 2028, and roughly 1,950 were accepted. That means that about 52,050 were rejected.
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Straits Times
Spain gradually restoring power after outage on Canaries' La Palma
MADRID - Spain's grid operator, Redeia, said on Tuesday it was gradually restoring power on La Palma after the Canary island suffered a blackout. The power cut on the archipelago's third-smallest island was caused by the failure of a generator at the Los Guinchos power plant in eastern La Palma, the regional government said in a statement, citing utility company Endesa. The outage follows a mass blackout across most of Spain and Portugal on April 28 that caused gridlock across cities and left thousands of people stranded on trains or stuck in elevators. The Canary blackout occurred at 5:30 p.m. (1630 GMT), RTVE reported. Redeia said it had reestablished 6.2 megawatts on La Palma by 7:10 p.m. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
9 hours ago
- Straits Times
'Python Huntress' takes on invasive snakes in the Everglades
Amy Siewe, a professional python hunter, inspects dyed skins of Florida's invasive Burmese python species at her home in Naples, Florida, U.S. June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello A photo of Amy Siewe, a professional hunter of Florida's invasive Burmese python species, and a python skull are displayed at her home in Naples, Florida, U.S. June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello Amy Siewe, a professional python hunter, inspects dyed skins of Florida's invasive Burmese python species at her home in Naples, Florida, U.S. June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello OCHOPEE, Florida - Amy Siewe was a successful real estate agent -- but her life changed after she captured her first python in Florida's Everglades. "I just had this fascination with snakes. So when I learned that there was a python problem here in Florida ... I went on a hunt, I caught a nine-foot (2.75-meter) python, and that was it. I was hooked!" she said. Within two months she had sold her business in Indiana and moved to Florida to become a python hunter. Now, with more than 600 dead pythons under her belt, she is known as the "Python Huntress" -- one of a handful of women amongst hundreds of men hunting the invasive Burmese python in Florida's Everglades wetland ecosystem. "This python is about 10 feet (3 meters) long," she says as she wrestles a snake she has just captured in the tall grass in the middle of the night. "It's probably about three years old, and to date it's eaten about 200 of our native animals, including mammals and birds." Burmese pythons have been spreading through the Everglades National Park since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 destroyed a breeding facility for the pet trade, freeing some 900 snakes. Originally native to Southeast Asia, the python can grow up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) long and has a voracious appetite, consuming the local wildlife, including mammals, birds and even alligators. The Everglades is a unique subtropical ecosystem, with the largest continuous mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. It is home to a vast array of unique species, including the endangered Florida panther, the American alligator and the American crocodile. But it provides no natural predators to the Burmese python, allowing the population of the invasive species to balloon. Scientists have noted dramatic declines in raccoons, opossums, bobcats, and rabbits in the region. "There's an estimated 500,000 pythons out there," Siewe said. The pythons, which are hunted by night, cannot legally be transported alive, so they are killed on site after being captured and measured. Once home, Siewe skins the dead snakes, and then has the skins professionally tanned into leather to be made into purses, wallets, watch bands and other goods. It takes an average of 12 hours to catch one. "So it's not that effective, right," she admits. "We're always going to have pythons in Florida. What we're trying to do is figure out how to decrease their numbers. Hunting right now is the most effective tool that we have." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
10 hours ago
- Straits Times
Veteran hiker dies after bear attack in Greek forest
The bear was likely just defending itself, according to a wildlife group. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: AFP THESSALONIKI, Greece – A veteran Greek hiker died on June 10 in a ravine fall in the north of the country after a bear encounter, rescuers have said. Mr Christos Stavrianidis was declared dead at Kavala hospital shortly after he was found in the 800m ravine in Fraktou forest in north-eastern Greece, the Ekav national emergency centre said. Mr Stavrianidis was in the forest with another experienced hiker, Mr Dimitris Kioroglou, when the incident happened on June 9. 'I suddenly saw a bear which attacked me,' Mr Kioroglou told news portal NewsIT. 'My dog delayed it for a few seconds. I used pepper spray, and it headed to where my friend was and knocked him into the ravine,' he said. Mr Panos Stefanou, spokesman for Greece wildlife group Arcturos, said the bear was likely defending itself. 'This is more a defensive behaviour, not an attack. The bear is trying to push back what it sees as a threat,' he told state TV ERT. The hikers were heading towards the remains of a Greek warplane that crashed in the area some seven decades earlier. Mr Stavrianidis found the plane deep in the forest last August. He was leading efforts to identify a more accessible route to its location to enable more people to visit the wreckage. 'It's a beautiful discovery that deserves to be viewed on location… The fuselage is nearly intact,' he told a local journalist in 2024. 'It's a treasure of nature and should be left (in the forest),' he said. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
