Colleges have finally gotten back to students, and we’ve been hard at work helping our students process their acceptances and rejections, review scholarship and financial aid offers, and decide which colleges are the right option to benefit them. This is one of our favorite times of the year, to see the excitement as our students plan out their futures, and take the next steps of their educational journey. As we get the results in, we are able to look back on this admissions cycle, see what went well, and how trends in college admissions are developing. We don’t have the largest pool of data available, but we can make some observations about the state of college admissions; what students are looking for, and what colleges want. In this article, we’re going to explore our data from the past year, and see what it portends for the year ahead.
Our Admissions Data
We aren’t going to provide a full picture of our admissions data, in large part because the numbers often fluctuate widely, and to prevent any of our students being identified. We also aren’t going to include data where there isn’t a statistically significant amount; we had no students apply to Caltech or Cornell (an interesting point on its own); we had just one application to MIT, which was rejected, and two to Northeastern, both accepted.
While we would like to brag about a hundred percent acceptance rate to Northeastern, that doesn’t feel quite honest. With that in mind, here’s the data from the past year in admissions:
| College | ³Ô¹Ï¹ÙÍø Acceptance Rate | Overall Acceptance Rate |
| Harvard | 20% | 4.6% |
| Yale | 24.2% | 6.6% |
| UT Austin | 53.8% | 26.6% |
| Texas A&M | 90.9% | 44% |
| Stanford | 42.9% | 3.6% |
| NYU | 49% | 7.7% |
| UCLA | 57.1% | 9% |
| UC Berkeley | 20% | 11% |
| Vanderbilt | 41% | 4.6% |
| USC | 20% | 10.4% |
| University of Washington | 80% | 39.1% |
This is a lot of numbers, so for an easier set of comparisons, here’s that same data on a handy graph:
We’re very proud of all our students have accomplished, and our mentors for helping them so much on their journey.
Trends in Applications and Admissions
Along with the successes, we’ve seen some other trends in admissions. These are based on a small slice of data, but do match some of what we’re seeing and hearing from both others in our industry, and admissions officers themselves. We’re going to go through what we’re seeing, and what these mean for the students who are now preparing to apply this fall, and in future admissions cycles.
An Increase in Public School Applications
³Ô¹Ï¹ÙÍø has been doing this for a long while, over ten years at this point, and this past year was one of the highest application rates for public universities we have seen. Now, students have always aimed at public colleges, and these are great schools, but this year, far more students applied to flagship state schools alongside, or in place of, top private universities.
University of Washington is a great school, with many great programs. This year, however, we saw more students interested in applying to UW than Dartmouth, Princeton, and Cornell. Based on what our students say, they are motivated primarily by two factors: a desire for merit scholarships at these schools, and the increasing level of competition at private colleges.
Scholarship Interest
Students have long been interested in scholarships, both generally and those we work with. College costs a lot of money, more so every year. We have, however, seen many more students interested in pursuing honors programs and scholarships at both public and private colleges, putting equal emphasis on these and on more expensive private colleges, which may have a slightly higher ranking, but offer less financial support.
We had some remarkable successes doing this with students this year, achieving honors scholarships to UT Austin and University of Washington, and merit scholarships to Texas A&M and University of Houston, amongst others. We did receive scholarship offers from private schools, including Yale and NYU, but the increased interest in public schools and their scholarship programs is noteworthy.
A Fall Off on Lower Tier Private Schools
Certain schools have always attracted less interest; Fordham has always been less popular than NYU, Southern Methodist University has always been less of a draw than Texas A&M. This year, however, we have seen very few applications to these schools compared to previous years.
Now, there is always some fluctuation in which schools receive interest from our students; we saw far more applicants to Yale than Princeton this year; two years ago it was the reverse. This, however, is a decrease across the board in interest in lower ranked private universities. We did still see some applications, but far fewer than we observed in previous years.
There have been several factors contributing to this, but the largest one we have heard from students is cost. These schools cost a lot of money, far more than their private counterparts. When there is a major prestige advantage, students and parents are willing to accept that. When there isn’t a major advantage in prestige, then there is the question of why they would choose these schools over a more affordable option.
This matches broader trends we are seeing in the application landscape, where lower ranked private schools are seeing significant reductions year over year in the number of applications they receive. Many of them are already alarmed by this, with fears that if these trends continue, some universities may have to shutter, as they often rely heavily on tuition money to keep the lights on.
Implications for Future Applicants
Those are the trends we’ve seen developing, but what does all of this mean for students who are just now thinking about their applications, the current crop of juniors for whom college admissions is looming on the horizon? We can’t predict the future, but like any good captain, we can see how the currents are running, and make predictions on the courses that will follow.
The first major takeaway is that public colleges, especially flagship state universities, are going to get more competitive. We already saw this happen to schools like UT Austin and UNC Chapel Hill, but we predict it happening to further schools as well; University of Washington, Texas A&M, Purdue, UIUC, all of which already have some very competitive programs, but which are growing more popular quite quickly.
Schools which may have once been safeties are moving out of that category as this interest increases, driven by economic pragmatism. At the same time, some third tier private universities are seeing their application numbers drop, and may become easier to apply to, though this is harder to predict for any given university or application.
We also anticipate applications for honors programs and merit scholarships to grow more competitive, as students who once sought out private universities now put far more consideration on these offerings from public institutions. Honors colleges have always been competitive of course, but the trend line is headed upwards, though it’s hard to say how steep it is as yet.
Finally, we anticipate more scrutiny of student research projects as they become more popular. Research that is well done with heavy involvement by the student is notable, and something universities like to see, but not all research falls into this category. Just as admissions officers became overwhelmed by students creating nonprofits without purpose, so too are admissions officers growing wary of research that isn’t done seriously. Our research program is scrupulous and driven to produce actual serious work, but not all companies are so dedicated.
Final Thoughts
College admissions changes slightly each year, as students react to shifting economic pressures, and colleges roll out new initiatives and priorities. These changes are often gradual, but accumulate over time; admissions now is very different from five years ago, and will change again in another five years. We hope that this article has helped you understand some of the changes we saw in admissions this year, and how this will impact the college application cycle going forward.
If you are worried about your own upcoming college admissions, and want a guide through this shifting and byzantine landscape, then ³Ô¹Ï¹ÙÍø can help. Our students see great results in the admissions process, regardless of where they’re applying. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about how we can help you.
