It’s Not You, It’s Them
At this time of year, social media overflows with posts of X kid with XY stats who did not get into Z college. Ivy Day is filled with disappointment because, hello, the HUGE majority of kids do not get accepted to these colleges. Harvard’s acceptance rate last year was 3%, and more colleges than ever before have acceptance rates that are in the single digits. Kids are asking, “What more could I have done?”.
We have spent a lot of time talking about all the things students can do to help their chances of admission to highly selective colleges. Today, we are going to say that after you have done those things, studied hard in rigorous courses, participated in activities you feel passionate about, worked to be helpful to others you care about, spent time preparing good applications, studying for, and excelling at your standardized tests, the answer is NOTHING.
Yes, I said nothing. It is time to cut yourself a break and realize this is not all about you. It is about these colleges and their institutional priorities. Colleges are businesses and operate like such. They are concerned about putting together a whole class. Highly selective colleges have tons of qualified applicants and can literally fill their classes ten times over with incredibly accomplished, amazingly smart, kind, and wonderful students. At colleges like Harvard, the majority of applicants have perfect or near-perfect test scores and grades. This is the elusive part of college admissions that so many students and families find so upsetting. This is not a simple equation of hard work = reward. So what does this all mean? What are often some institutional priorities?
A) Colleges need to manage their enrollment.
Colleges have had a huge spike in applications since the pandemic. This year applications to the Common Application’s 834 returning member colleges increased another 7% for a total number of applications through February 1st of nearly 7.5 million. Since 2020, the number of applications to Common App institutions has risen by over 39%, and the number of applicants has risen by almost 28%. Today more than 1,000 colleges are using the Common Application compared to only 400 colleges in 2010. Additionally, since COVID, there has been increased virtual access to students, and tools like The College Board’s Landscape have provided colleges with important data about high schools they might not be as familiar with. This has allowed colleges to reach out to more underserved populations both domestically and internationally. Simply put, more students are applying to colleges through the Common App, and because of that and the ripple effects of dropped admissions rates, some students are applying to more colleges than their counterparts did 4 years ago.
Colleges are trying to have a set number of students in each class. Their class size is determined by many things, but among them might be: how much money they need to earn from tuition; how much space they have for students to live on campus; how large their other classes are; how many students they feel they can comfortably educate and serve. Hitting this exact number is tricky, especially these days. Colleges are making educated guesses on which applicants that they have accepted might actually attend and become part of their class. This delicate calculation is the job of a college’s enrollment manager. Some years, colleges do a great job predicting this number, and some years, they do not. Some colleges might have over-enrolled or under-enrolled last year or for more than one year, so they need to take fewer or more students overall this year. In the past two years American University’s application numbers dropped from 20,668 for the Class of 2026 to 18,624 for the Class of 2028. So roughly a 10% decrease in apps, but American’s acceptance rate rose by 17% because they took 29% more students, (10,243 this year vs 7,937 for the Class of 2026). Conversely, Johns Hopkins’ application numbers have been fairly steady for a few years. For the Class of 2025, 38,725 applications were received. This year, they received 38,100 applications, but their admissions rate was lower. That is because they have steadily been accepting fewer students to get roughly the same size class. For their Class of 2025, they accepted 2,476 students, and for their Class of 2028, they accepted 1,749 students or 29% fewer students than they admitted just 3 years ago.
So, why would a college take more or fewer students than in previous years? A college is managing its yield. Yield is the rate at which a college’s accepted students choose to enroll. When I see numbers like this, I think that American’s yield must be dropping and Johns Hopkins yield must be rising. Another example is Boston University. BU’s acceptance rate this year was 11%, pretty consistent with last year’s 10.7% acceptance rate but way lower than its 18% acceptance rate for the Class of 2025. BU received more apps this year and last year (78,634 and 80,792) versus 75,733 for the Class of 2025, but that doesn’t fully explain the significant drop in acceptance rates. The story here is how much their yield must have risen. They accepted 13,884 students to the Class of 2025 and only 8,414 students to the Class of 2028. That is a 39% drop in the number of admitted students in 3 years! According to Admissions Blog, Kelly Walter, BU’s VP for Enrollment and Director of Admissions, said last year, “ since we have been significantly overenrolled for each of the past two years, it was absolutely critical for us to plan for yet another increase in yield. As a result, we had no choice but to significantly decrease the number of students to whom we offered admission.”
Other things can come into play when a college over-enrolls - a college might not have adequate housing for so many students. The College of Charleston recently sent out a counselor communication stating that because of their enormous growth in applications, 157% overall since 2019, they are becoming even more selective than they anticipated. Last year, their yield increased more than they expected and they enrolled their largest class in history. Their first-year retention rate has also increased, and now they do not have enough on-campus housing. These three factors– increased applications, increased yield rate, and increased retention rate— have prompted them to enroll a smaller class.
To manage enrollment, a college might enroll a large percentage of their class EA, ED I or ED II. Last year, Middlebury admitted 70-80% of their class through their ED 1 and ED II rounds. (70% for Sept start, 80% if you include their Feb starts.) Emory admitted 70% of their class ED 1 and ED II. Penn State filled up their entire University Park campus with EA applicants this year, and the University of Maryland, College Park typically admits 90% of their applicants EA. At these colleges and many others, it simply becomes way harder to get accepted regular decision.
Colleges must balance their budgets.
Some colleges may need to accept more full-pay students to help them balance their budgets and/or achieve other goals.
Some colleges are prioritizing Pell-eligible or low-income students. Many highly selective universities are partnering with community based organizations like QuestBridge College Match Programs to find these students. This year Duke admitted 97 students ED through Questbridge, which is almost double the number they admitted last year.
Some colleges prioritize letting in the majority of students with some type of tuition discount. This is the very concept of merit aid. An example is Lake Forest College, which offers merit aid to 100% of accepted students.
Some public colleges must prioritize in-state students. For example, the state of North Carolina mandates that any UNC campus can only have a maximum of 18% of its incoming class coming from out of state. Some states auto-admit a large percentage of in-state students. A good example of this is the University of Texas, Austin.
Some public colleges may need out-of-state students or, moreover, need money from out-of-state student tuition. A good example of this is the University of Vermont. Vermont does not have enough students in-state to fill its flagship university.
Some colleges prioritize certain groups like military families with things like yellow ribbon benefits and children of academic employees with tuition exchange programs. As an example, SMU offers full tuition scholarships to 100 students via yellow ribbon benefits.
Colleges will often accept students with connections to VIPs or Development.
Some colleges will prioritize Legacy students. Duke has said it will continue to do this. Some colleges and/or states are banning Legacy admissions. John Hopkins, Amherst, Wesleyan, VA Tech, the entire UC System, and the State of Colorado among others, currently ban legacy admissions. Virginia is the most recent state to ban legacy admissions in its public universities. The state of CT has legislation pending to ban legacy preference in all of its colleges and universities, public and private.
B) Colleges have athletic teams, school bands, school choirs, debate teams, and theater productions.
Colleges might need to fill an athletic spot.
Colleges might need a student who plays an obscure instrument.
College might need a student with all sorts of special talents.
C) Colleges want students in all of their different majors.
This might mean that certain popular majors are much harder to get into than others. For example, Computer Science is one of the hardest majors in the country right now. Some majors, like Nursing, are not only popular but also constrained by the availability of clinical space.
Some colleges might need to consider that a department is understaffed or unprepared to take students at this specific time.
Some colleges will prioritize certain genders for certain majors. For example, male students might have a strong advantage in fine arts and fashion. We visited the University of San Diego last year, and they spoke proudly of their efforts to enroll more women engineers.
D) Most colleges want to have a diversified class of students.
Colleges want students with diversified interests in and out of the classroom.
By now, you’ve probably heard about last summer’s Supreme Court ruling against the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina (and, by extension, other colleges with similar programs). All colleges, except the military academies, currently ban affirmative action in admissions. Some words from the Court’s opinion that we believe are being closely followed by college admissions offices: "nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise. But, despite the dissent's assertion to the contrary, universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today." Because universities are free to consider “an applicant’s discussion,” we saw more application essay questions that aimed to learn about the ways in which a student’s race or background has shaped their experience. Most colleges are still committed to creating an ethnically diverse class.
Some colleges want a regionally diverse group from all 50 states and multiple international locations. Colleges might be trying to expand their footprint regionally, nationally, or internationally. They might prioritize one location over another. Every time I am on a college tour, I laugh at the requests for students from the Dakotas.
Some colleges might want students from more rural or underserved locations. Several top colleges including Yale, Harvard and Columbia have joined the Small Town and Rural Students College Network (STARS.) Many colleges are seeking out students by using databases like the College Board’s Landscape which gives colleges a breakdown of the demographics of a high school’s population.
Some colleges want a good gender balance and prioritize men over women or vice versa. This article shows how at Brown, men have an advantage in the admissions process because Brown simply gets way more applications from women. In general, for the highly selective colleges, we have seen men having an easier time than women. An exception to this would be the UC system, which does not consider gender.
Some colleges want a class that is diversified in sexual orientation, so they might prioritize underrepresented groups like LGBTQ students.
Some colleges prioritize first-generation students or students who are re-entering college. The UCs are a good example of this.
Some colleges, especially religious ones, may want a certain percentage of their students from their specific denomination/churches.
Some colleges prioritize students who were in the military.
E) Some colleges prioritize their relationships with certain high schools.
F) Some colleges are prioritizing rankings and making decisions to try and maximize their place on US News and World Report. This is part of a larger conversation and probably best left for another day, but when you have time, look into how US News and World Report ranks colleges. Much of that data can be manipulated through enrollment tactics, including yield protection.
The true trick to acceptance for many students is when they fulfill multiple priorities of a college. For now, maybe when you start looking at colleges, you can also consider their institutional priorities. First, do those values line up with your own? Check out a college’s mission statement. Does it resonate with you? If you think a college’s priorities align with yours, maybe you are a good fit. If so, then yes, please do apply. Spend time on your applications and essays. Put your best foot forward, but realize you can only worry about what you can control. A college will consider the whole class. For those who have already applied and those who have yet to apply, please remember this: if the decision is no, it is often not you, it is them!