The article presents the results of a monitoring of the academic level of the students who got admitted to universities in the summer of 2010. The authors estimate the average Unified State Examination grade of those who got admitted via competition of their USE grades. The data thus obtained are used to analyze the tendencies in the development of the higher education system. Specifically, the following questions are addressed: which programs are most on the demand, which university get the best prepared students, what is the breakdown of preferences of olympiad winners across universities, who are entitled to be admitted bypassing the competition, and what are specific features of the admission at universities that have received state support.