| I hope this sheds light on whats happening in selective college admissions, and why so many are finding that they have been waitlisted or denied at schools they considered matches.
College admissions has become the most competitive ever. There are more children of college entrance age than at any other time in US history, but the size of college classes has not changed that significantly. As a result at many schools across the country there are 24,000 applicants applying for 1600 spots.
Added to this is the fact that several of the ivies and other selective schools have done away with single choice early action and early decision. As a result with over 20,000 appicants competing for admission, it is becoming virtually impossible for applicants to stand in the admission pool. In fact, the exceptional student with outstanding SAT scores and grades, and great extra curriculars often becomes ordinary.
It is important to stand out from the other thousands and thousands of also outstanding applicants. in order to get an admisison officers eye - especially one is not a highly recruited athlete, an under represented high achieving minority, a developmental legacy, or from an under epresented state like Idaho.
Of the 24,000 applicants who apply to very selective schools, the majority will have excellent SAT scores and grades. The majority will have more than just a checklist of extracurriculars. Most will be active in their school commuity. The problem is that there are thousands of applicants who are President of their class, and head of the debate club, star in their schools musicals and and/ or are Editor in Chief of the yearbook and Captain of their varsity team. As amazing at it sounds to have academic achievement and time for leadership in school and sports activities, this becomes ordinary, as everyone is exceptional.
At very selective schools there are ways that some applicants stand out amongst who also have the academics and scores to get accepted. One is for having passions that span years with extraordinary achievements on the national or international level in the arts and in areas that are out of the ordinary. Or to have interesting passions without those achievements but that show they have been developed over years. Other ways some applicants stand out are for having extraordinary academic achievement. These are the students who have perfect or near perfect SAT scores, while being number one in the class, and perhaps having published their research or were a semi finalist in a competitition like Westinghouse.
There are some applicants who just have really good SAT scores and grades, but the combination of the things they have done, or their essays and teacher recommendations just make them more interesting applicants, or the admissions committee thinks they will bring something that is needed to the campus.
What has happened in college admissions is that many who did not get into their early school if they did apply to one, or choose not to apply to one, found that in the regular decision pool, it was just too hard to compete against 20,000 or more applicants for a small number of spots. Many unfortunately found that they were waitlisted or denied. at schools that normally would have been considered matches. It used to be that passions and unusual achievement was needed to gain admission to just the ivy league and other first tier schools, but for second tier competitive schools, very good SAT scores and grades and extracurricular activities with leadership was enough. That has changed however. These second tier schools have found that they can be very selective as they have received also over 20,000 appiicants at most schools. They also hope to capture the students who were qualified for the ivy league and top tier schools who were waitlisted or not accepted.
I do feel that there is a lot of hope for waitlisted applicants this year. In previous years it was impossible to get off a waitlist as colleges estimated correctly the percentage of students who would come if accepted. However, this year is different. Many selective schools do not know who will accept their offer, as many who might have been accepted early to other schools did not apply early, and may be hoping to gain acceptance somewhere else.
Many colleges could not predict yield but still wanted to remain selective, so they accepted the number they did last year, but waitlisted a number just as large. I do believe that many will be offered spots off the waitlist.
For those of you waitlisted at one or several schools, who would rather go there than the schools you were accepted to, I would remain on the waitlist and rally to get one of those spots.
This was probably the toughest year in college admissions.
Where you got in or did not is not a reflection of who you are, and you should not take it personally if you were not taken. I am sure you were outstanding. It is just hard to stand out when everyone is outstanding |