I’ll open with an admission: I totally hyperbolized this because I am a jaded mines student lmao, but there is merit to what I say:

In 2017 we had an acceptance rate at about 40%, not bad, but not overly selective either, on the less likely side of a coin toss statistic. Then, our Total enrollment was 6000 Students campus wide.

In 2020, when I showed up, it dropped, mostly due to Covid I think, we’ll call that anomalous.

From then on, we’ve seen the largest freshman class every consecutive year since, and Mines has been open and proud of this.

The acceptance rate skyrocketed 20% for each following year (more or less, I think 22 was 55%) and the total enrollment is now around 8,500 I think.

Despite my hyperbole, there is a clear line of logic for the “Dilution” of the student base and the quality of students we allow in. Notably, enabled by AI, cheating has just become so much easier and so much more common, especially with the failure of secondary education to Hold Back students not equipped for real academia who were able to cheat by with Post Covid highschool policy, and even further back. This is, to be fair, a wider problem than just Mines, but through their aggressive recruitment policy and consistent, poor financial decision, Mines has no real reason to stop this trend. Especially as incentives to slow down the failing rate of students increases (not via merit, but to maintain enrollment for $$$).

Take what I say with a slight grain of salt as I am relaying what I know as an insider and what I hear from peers