A Review on the State of College Admissions

About this time each summer soon to be senior students (and their parents) often start stressing out about their college list.  It is hard to be able to narrow down where you want to apply for college - especially when there are so many viable options where you will be happy and successful.  But, what often happens is a fear that "I won't get in anywhere" or "there is only one perfect college for me."  And I want to assure you that neither of those fears are accurate.

Perhaps it would help you a little to know some of the highlights from this past year's "State of College Admissions Report" put out by the National Association for College Admissions Counseling each year.

- The number of applications from freshmen continues to grow.  That means more students are applying to more colleges.  Last year this increase was 4%.  But, with so many colleges now using Common App, I have found that it isn't because students are really interested in that many more colleges, but rather it is "easy" to apply to more schools.

- Colleges accept, on average, nearly 2/3 of all applicants.  If you look at all of the four-year colleges and universities in the US, their accepance rate is 65.4%.  And yes, that includes all of the highly selective colleges that will have single digit acceptance rates too.  And no, it does not include two-year community colleges like Columbus State.  This is just looking at 4-year colleges.

-  More students are applying early.  I am very confident you will find this to be true in your college search too.  The reality is that so many colleges have moved their scholarship application date up to align with their early action deadlines that students are nearly forced to apply by the early deadlines in order to be considered for scholarships.  Early Decision (meaning you'd be locked in to attending that college) applications increased by 4% and their admission standards from those students increased by 5%.  For Early Action (which is what most of you will do), the applications increased by 9% and the number of students accepted from this pool increased by 10%.

-  The top factors in admissions decisions has remained consistent.  So, what we have talked about in the past (like at Junior night when we did the GPA game) is still the same... your grades, strength of curriculum and test scores are he top factors followed by your essay, your demonstrated interest, recommendation letters, leadership and extracurricular activities.

I hope that you are working on narrowing your college list, but please, let this information be encouraging to you!  You will find a college that will be a good fit and where you will be happy and successful.