Newsletter
April 2007 Newsletter
There was a timely article in the April 4, 2007 edition of the New York Times written by Sam Dillon, A Great Year for Ivy League Schools, but Not So Good for Applicants to Them.
The federal Department of Education projects that 3.2 million students will graduate from high school this spring, compared with 3.1 million last year and 2.4 million in 1993.
With more students applying for admissions than ever before, and with those students submitting multiple applications, receiving an acceptance letter from a highly selective school is becoming a much more difficult feat. Ten years ago a student with perfect SAT’s or a valedictorian could have easily gotten accepted at the college of his/her choice, provided of course that the essays and the recommendations were respectable. This has all changed. According to Dillon, “Harvard turned down 1,100 student applicants with perfect 800 scores on the SAT math exam. Yale rejected several applicants with perfect 2400 scores on the three-part SAT, and Princeton turned away thousands of high school applicants with 4.0 grade point averages. Needless to say, high school valedictorians were a dime a dozen.”
“It was the most selective spring in modern memory at America’s elite schools, according to college admissions officers. More applications poured into top schools this admissions cycle than in any previous year on record,” says Dillon.
According to Dillon’s research, Harvard received 22,955 applications, and accepted 2,058; Columbia received 18,081 applications, and accepted 1,618; Stanford received 23,956 applications, and accepted 2,456, and Amherst College received 6,668 applications, and accepted 1,167 students.
In another article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on April 3, 2007, Colleges Reject Record Numbers, Anjali Athavaley gives the following statistics: Dartmouth College received 14,176 applications, and accepted 2,165, California Institute of Technology received 3,595, and accepted 576, and The University of Pennsylvania received 22,634 applications. Penn then accepted 3,610 of its applicants.
Yale University was the only school in the Ivy League to report that they had fewer applications than in the previous year. Applications fell from 21,101 last year to 19,323 this year. Yale accepted 1,860 of their applicants in hopes to matriculate a class of 1,340 students.
If you are a student applying to college in the next year, or two, or three, don’t just assume that your stats alone will win you admission to the college of your choice. Planning can be the key to your success at the college admissions process. You need to think about what you want from a college education and what you can bring to a college. Begin visiting colleges in your sophomore year. Work hard at your academics, but work equally hard at your extracurricular activities. Find your passions and develop them. Do something unique, something different from your peers, something that will get you noticed. Make friends with your guidance counselor and teachers, get them to know the real you so that their recommendations will be significant. Communicate with the admissions representative of your geographic area at the college to which you will eventually apply. Work at the application process by writing powerful essays and personal statements. Tell your story and make it the best work you have ever done. Read through our website and learn how you can win at the college admissions game.
