It also increases the anxiety level when the price of our college diplomas exceed 300k, which colleges conveniently ignore.
The fact is that the US has a holistic admissions process. We don’t admit based off pure stats.
As such, parents need to be communicating that there needs to be a truly well balanced list.
That doesn’t mean applying to a ton of school because “my kids stats are above the the 75th percentile so they are definitely going to get in” when it’s schools with a sub 30% acceptance rate.
This isn’t an easy, nor straight forward process, but we can do better in helping our kids not be so stressed out.
Oxbridge doesn’t admit based solely off stats either
Where would you like them to put the additional students? If classrooms hold only 30 students, you can’t magically fit 50. Dorms hold as many occupants as the fire codes allow. Constructing new dorms takes space, which not all colleges have, and money which nobody seems to want to spend lest it drive up tuition rates.
SUNYs cost $100k. They’re $40k if you commute, and $30k if you start at a community college. We aren’t the only state with reasonably priced in state options. Nobody has to spend $300k for a college degree.
This stress is a known thing…there’s typically an uptick in admissions leadership/staff firings after each app season…some liken it to the Monday after the regular NFL season ends (when each year a handful of coaches are typically fired).
@Austinmshauri, it is not community colleges nor SUNYs which are driving the anxiety. They aren’t gaming the rankings, ar least not much. But no, not all states have great options available. Texas this year limits UT Austin to the top 6% for a realistic chance of non hooked admission. It will soon drop to the top 4%. I know many families struggling to find a high quality affordable education, hopefully not too far away, who fall within that 4 to 6 percent range who are understandably panicking. Yes, they could always attend a community college, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable for residents to think their top 5% kid could attend the nearby flagship. Not unreasonable, but not happening.
A number of schools do have a lot of leeway with commuter students. That’s how they keep the school full. I know a few schools where getting accepted as a commuter is pretty much guaranteed but getting a spot in the dorms is a challrngevasvtheybdo offer them to OOS and long distance students first.
Well, I wasn’t anxious and prestige means zero to me. My kid was admitted to all but one school he applied to, but I still think the entire process is crazy.
And why oh why do people insist on making so many threads about “elite” schools?? Nowhere does the OP say this is about the Top20 or whatever yardstick you all insist on using.
Some of them I truly feel bad for - the ones that took S as a serious candidate and extended an acceptance and merit aid, courted him, and were just lovely. The rest can sod off. (Though I did see there was an opening for a program DS turned down - I’m glad another deserving person will now get the chance, but I’m sorry they had to deposit somewhere else and go through the wait.)
Not all parents are prestige hogs or push their kids. Some kids push themselves. At our house, we were putting limits on the number of APs in the early years. Thought it was crazy our son signed up for 5 this year, but there was no changing his mind, and he had a track record of proving himself. Other than the stress of college applications, he has had an easy year. And yes, I still reserve the right to assert that this past year was extremely anxiety-provoking and stressful.
Felt bad about D turning down one of the schools - they offered the most merit, and sent a last minute email offering to waive the deposit.
The others didn’t seem to care that much.
However, compare the size of McGill to Canada’s population, and then compare the size of Harvard to the US’ population. Simply by size alone, McGill is much more accessible to Canadians than Harvard is to Americans, and McGill can get sufficient differentiation between applicants based on academic credentials.
407 colleges now looking for more students. See NACAC list.
It does seem like there is a lot of “UT Austin or bust” in Texas, given how much more selective UT Austin is than all other Texas public universities. Even the next most selective one, Texas A&M, admits top 10% with any test score or top 25% with specified test scores. However, one issue that may increase the stress level at many Texas public universities is that thresholds for more competitive majors are not published.
No, I’m not laughing. These checks we will be writing stop that. 
Just smiling that my #2 of 3 is getting to go to college and is very happy with her choice. (2 for 2, one more to go.) Everyone we met in this process was lovely to us. We could have made it horrible and super stressful for #2 but I believe in working with the child in front of you to make sure they get what they need. So, I count two successes so far.
Well unfortunately, Texas has grown enormously, and for 28 million people, has only 2 flagships, compared to, say, California with 38 million with many flagships, or tiny Indiana, with 2 flagships for a mere 6.7 million people. So supply hasn’t kept up with demand. Add in that the most popular majors are even more selective, and there is bound to be anxiety. I know both NMF scholars and Harvard students who were rejected from UT Austin.
There ABSOLUTELY is stress for people who work admissions during April. I talked to a twenty-something friend who is a regional rep in a college admissions office on Monday and he wasn’t even quite sure what day of the week it was. “Sorry. It’s two days until May 1st. That’s all I know.” (And the college at which he works did extremely well with yield this year, but yes, it’s still stressful until they know final numbers on deposits.)
College admissions is a tough industry!
@austinmshauri I went to one of the now T20 schools back in the day. Since I have left they took 2 dorms that housed around $12-13% of the students and made them admin buildings and built 4 new dorms to replace those dorms. Plus there are plenty of new buildings on campus over the years while enrollment has not gone up.
Many schools have endowments to fund this.
But like @Leigh22 said my original post was not about only elite schools. More around the whole process in general. And really elite schools aren’t the schools that are sweating on 5/1 because of their waitlist.
It is just nice to see the tables turned on the schools a little bit for a day.
As far as people talking about parents, friends or the students themselves putting anxiety on themselves and not the schools I beg to differ because the process itself causes some of the anxiety. And not everyone that wants to go to an elite school is looking for the prestige. Many just want a better school.
any many need the fine financial aid the very top schools can provide
Although California has what may be seen as a flagship system with nine campuses, most people think of only one or two as the actual flagship(s), which leads to griping by those who get admitted only to the “lower” ones.
When you have a long list of qualified applicants that you put on the wait list, and know you’ll have no problems getting to the number you want, I’m not sure there’s a lot of stress in the admissions office. If yield was low, you may have to take 100 rather than 10 off your waiting list of 800.
Perhaps the small schools that can’t hit their goals even accepting everyone will have concerns, but they will have known that long ago.
Fwiw, I never felt “help hostage”. There was a well defined process and a date on which we’d hear, and lots of historical data on which to base expectations. What you you feel they were demanding and what couldn’t you do when “held hostage”?