Earlier this week, the Boston Globe ran a three-part series entitled “Shadow Campus” that focused on the impact of the thousands of college students in Boston living in off-campus apartments. Those apartments are expensive, often dilapidated, and sometimes dangerous.

While it called to task landlords and government officials, it also addressed the role of universities, including Boston College, particularly in part 2.

From today’s New York Times, the lead article in the “Sunday Review” section — editorials, op eds, etc. — entitled “Getting Into the Ivies“:

“For American teenagers, it really is harder to get into Harvard — or Yale, Stanford, Brown, Boston College [emphasis added] or many other elite colleges — than it was when today’s 40-year-olds or 50-year-olds were applying.”

Definitely nice to see BC mentioned in such company as “elite.” Downside is that the column’s subject is that among the reasons it’s harder to get into such schools is how much they look for non-American students to enroll. Such students are usually from families financially well off and pay full price (fewer grants, scholarships, etc.). The column reports the number of places for American students at BC has declined 21 percent from 1994 to 2012.

Similar things are happening with state schools here in California, for example. Berkeley and UCLA, among others, are getting grief for accepting more out-of-state students, who pay higher tuitions.