We recently discussed the phenomenon of college application inflation. More and more students are applying to college, causing the acceptance rate at top colleges to plummet.
In a new article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Eric Hoover discusses some of the causes, as well as some consequences, of the application inflation.
First he discusses the problem of colleges raising applicant expectations. When a school like Yale, for example, sends out 120,000 “viewbook” to prospective students, but only enrolls 1,300, there are quite a large number of students who were, in a way, led on to believe they stood in a chance at acceptance, when in reality they didn’t. (Yale recently reduced the number of viewbooks it sends out to 80,000.)
When a high school student receives a letter of interest from an Ivy League or other highly competitive college, they may start to limit their search to a caliber of school that is beyond reach. “For one thing,” writes Hoover, “some students interpret the letter as an offer, or at least a strong indication that they will be admitted.”
A recent report by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) explains that the rise in college applications is attributed to both the rise in the number of high school students applying to college and to the fact that many of these students are applying to multiple institutions.
“As students apply to more places, it’s harder for colleges to know what’s a real application and what’s not, and so it’s harder to counsel kids reasonably,” says James W. Jump, academic dean and director of guidance at St. Christopher’s School, in Richmond, Va., and former president of NACAC. “I worry about the pressures on colleges, and with the need to increase applications, I worry about how much counseling is going on. How often do they tell students, ‘This is not a good place for you?’”
Meanwhile, a blog post in the New York Times hones in on the application inflation that is occurring among early-decision applications at top colleges. Early-decision application submissions are up more than 30% at some schools (like Vanderbilt, Bucknell, and Davidson). Most of the schools included on the site’s chart (which is updated frequently to reflect current rates) requires an enrollment commitment upon submission.
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Read the full article: College Applications Increase, Early Decision Rates Up
