<p>Interesting article with some actual data on high school students and their college application numbers and acceptance rates: [De-Hyping</a> College Admissions (or Trying to, Anyway) :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education’s Source for News, Views and Jobs](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/13/admissions]De-Hyping”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/13/admissions)</p>
<p>Those of us on CC have to realize that we’re not usually discussing the topic of college admissions for typical students - we’re usually discussing admission to selective colleges for highly-qualified students. The most typical college application pattern for high-school graduates in this country is to apply to a small number of less competitive public schools in-state or to enroll at their local open-admissions two-year college. If we broke out the subset of students pursuing top universities and LACs, I think the numbers of applications would go up dramatically and the percentage getting into their first choice would go way down.</p>
<p>I agree, gadad.</p>