Many applicants to the most selective university programs share high grades, high test scores, solid recommendations and generous doses of community service and volunteer activities. Yet, if they want to set themselves apart from the pool of exceptional students, a significant research experience in STEM or the social sciences helps.
The competition for admissions, including early admissions, among the most selective colleges continues to be ever more competitive. While this fact is not particularly newsworthy, some of the facts behind it are.
Foremost, the number of seats available in selective schools are declining.. Looking at the Ivy League schools along with Stanford and MIT, the total admits for fall 2009 was 28,600. For fall 2018 the total number admitted was 25,360, a decline of 11% over the decade.
One metric for keeping score on the vibrancy of a college is its yield rate: the percent of students who have been accepted who do, in fact, attend.
In 2014, Harvard edged out Brigham Young University by 0.1%, to enjoy the highest yield in the country. BYU, which has been the yield champion in several prior years, accepts slightly fewer than half of those who apply, has a 19:1 student/faculty ratio, and tuition and room and board under $13,000. Great education, great football, and access to the Wasatch National Forest enable it to get 80% of those accepted to come.
Early admissions applications are becoming ever more prominent. This last December, Ivy College Prep, LLC helped students get accepted into Notre Dame early action (EA), and Brown, early decision (ED). Under early action (EA), the admitted applicant is free to apply to any other school and has until May 1st to make a final decision. Early Decision (ED), on the other hand, binds: if accepted the applicant’s admissions process is over.
When is enough ever enough? You might want to ask William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions at Harvard, that very question. This year Harvard received over 35,000 applications for 1,700 offers. That is slightly over a 4.8% acceptance rate. By some estimates, 1 out of every 50 college-ready high school seniors sent an application to Harvard. Frankly, with Harvard’s aggressive financial aid package for any family making HHI under $180,000, and with its single essay supplement to the Common Application, the applicant pool might exceed 40,000 next year.
There are a lot of college application admission options. It’s a bit daunting at first: should you apply “Early Decision,” "Early Action," "Early Action Single Choice," or "Regular Decision"? Probably the best first step is to go to the website of each potential school and review the applicable restrictions and deadlines. If you want an up to date list of which schools offer these options (or a combination of them) go to: http://www.nacac.com/college-search/search.cfm. In the meantime, however, it's not a bad idea to gain a general sense of how each of these options works.
