Admission into the most selective universities became a bit more difficult this year. If you’re planning to apply to one of the highly selective colleges in the next year or two, keep in mind that there are hundreds of great colleges out there. The national admissions rate is about 65%.
Nevertheless, this low acceptance rate can be intimidating:
Harvard College. For every 100 students that applied to America’s most prestigious school, 94 were rejected. This year Harvard had the country’s lowest acceptance rate reported so far — just 5.9 percent, offering admission to 2,032 students of the 34,302 who applied. Last year the rate was 6.2 percent. The college ramped up financial aid, offering help to 60 percent of the students admitted to the Class of 2016, meaning the average family pays just $12,000 per year for tuition, room, board, and fees, the campus newspaper reports.
Princeton University. With 26,664 applications and admission offered to 2,095 students, Princeton’s acceptance rate was a record low 7.86 percent, compared to 8.5 percent last year, according to its website. Of the students admitted, 726 are students who applied by early action in December.
Yale University. The New Haven, Conn., undergraduate college had a record-high applicant pool of 28,975 and chose just 1,975 for a 6.8 percent acceptance rate. Last year, 27,283 applied and Yale admitted 7.4 percent, according to the school’s website.
Cornell University. Cornell is “considerably” more selective this year, with 16.2 percent of applicants getting in compared with 18 percent in 2011, according to Lee H. Melvin, Cornell’s associate vice provost for enrollment in an online story on the school’s website. Four percent more applications were received this year over last for a total of 37,812, and 6,123 were admitted.
Johns Hopkins University. With 20,496 students seeking admission — a 5 percent increase over last year — a new record of applicants was set at the Baltimore school. Just 17.7 percent or 3,071 students were admitted, down from 18. 3 percent in 2011.
via Top Tier Colleges Get Record Applications, Increase Selectivity – CollegeBound – Education Week.
What is more interesting to note about these acceptance rates is that there are so many applicants that are “disqualified” even prior to submitting their applications. Each of these colleges is members of the Common Application. Because it’s rather “easy” to add college, many students will apply to colleges that are not even a fit, just for the sake of ease. This is especially true when students start to get anxious about their own admissions chances when they hear where classmates have been accepting or not!
How Student Disqualify Themselves before they Apply
Some applicants are more easily denied than others. For students who are applying for the sake of applying, please double-check whether your application even meets the minimum criteria for reading. Here are some common ways that students disqualify themselves and add to these abnormally high application numbers:
- Not taking the required tests, such as an SAT Subject Test
- Submitting poorly written essays or one that’s not written by the student
- Asking a recommender that doesn’t know them well and/or doesn’t write well
- Not visiting the campus or contacting the college, even when “demonstrated interest” matters
- Not meeting all the course requirements for admissions to the Freshman class (watch out for removing courses from your senior year schedule)
When students submit their application before checking the specific admissions criteria, they make it easy on the admissions readers but hard on other qualified candidates.
