Every year college acceptance rates drop, leaving high school seniors to wonder if college is even achievable for them anymore.
The college application process is long and stressful with students often not knowing if they’ll receive good news back. By the time decision day comes around in May, seniors hope to have made the right choice for themselves but a good margin of them may not be content with their choices.
“I was definitely disappointed by some of the responses from colleges,” senior Abby Friedman said, “I was lucky enough though to get into a couple schools I could see myself at.”
The acceptance rate is the percentage of students admitted to a school based on the number of applicants. As every year goes by many schools receive more applications than the year before causing schools that were once less difficult to get into to become more difficult to get into.
“Drops in acceptance rates suck,” senior Tala Barghouty said, “some of the schools I thought would be target schools for me just aren’t anymore.”
Low acceptance rates are desired by many prestigious schools and continue to help schools like Harvard and Yale keep up their appearance of excellence. Ivy League schools’ acceptance rates have dropped to all-time lows in the past 5-10 years, becoming virtually impossible to be admitted into. The introduction of test-optional policies has contributed greatly to the drops with students now having to work far harder to be unique.
“I didn’t even think about applying to an ivy league school,” senior Calvin Palatt said, “It’s pretty much impossible to be good enough for those universities these days.”
Ivy League schools aren’t the only schools with substantial acceptance rate drops. The University of Tennessee at Knoxville, a very popular school for students in Northern Virginia, has dropped its acceptance rate for out-of-state students by over 30%. It is estimated that UTK now has an acceptance rate of around 30% for out-of-state students, a substantial drop from the 76% in 2021.
“I was waitlisted at the University of Tennessee,” Barghouty said. “I was disappointed but not that surprised.”
Some of the most disappointing drops for Champe students remain in-state schools. James Madison University (JMU) hit an all-time high in applications this year receiving a little over 40,00 undergraduate students. The acceptance rate has remained relatively the same but more students are hearing back news they may not have expected considering the standards from past years.
“I will be attending JMU in the fall,” Barghouty said. “I’m happy to know where I’m going, especially considering how difficult it can be to get into lots of schools right now.”
Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia have both experienced significant drops in their acceptance rates in the last ten years. While UVA tends to accept more in-state students, Virginia tech has been known in recent years to lack prioritization of in-state students. This year’s applicant pool for Virginia Tech had an acceptance rate of 76% for out-of-state students and 63% for in-state students.
“Virginia colleges have become super popular over the past few years,” Friedman said, “so many people from out of state are just all of the sudden interested.”
While many Champe students may not be facing the challenges of college acceptance rate drops right now it will definitely be something to watch out for in the future.
“My advice to underclassmen is to make sure your doing everything you can to meet the requirements of a college you really want to go to,” Barghouty said, “It’s difficult to make up for three years worth of laziness in a few months.”
(Ries Kann)
Image courtesy of champe decisions on Instagram
