How do the dropping college acceptance rates affect students?


2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic have had drastic effects on college admissions, especially their acceptance rates. Colleges have received many more applications in recent years than ever before. Additionally, according to a report by the Education Advisory Board (EAB), there has been a steady increase in the past few years of the average number of colleges students apply to. This has caused colleges to decrease their acceptance rates as well as eliminating SAT testing and having test-optional schools. 

According to the US News and World Report, on average, colleges received about 21.3 percent more applications in 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 than in previous years. Because of this, the class of 2026 college acceptance rates are the lowest they have ever been. So even though acceptance rates decreased, it is not necessarily more difficult to be admitted into colleges because the percentage accounts for the increased number of applications.

A lot of high school students in California will likely apply to a few UCs. According to the Los Angeles Times, overall admission rates in California decreased from 65.7 percent to 64.4 percent in previous years. For example, UC Berkeley dropped from 16.9 percent to 14.5 percent, and UCLA went down to 9.2 percent from 9.9 percent in the same period of time. Samo students looking to apply to Ivy League schools will also face the same problems. According to a chart in a NY Post article, top schools such as Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and others have also experienced the same dropping admission rates.

Samo students, especially seniors and juniors, have been feeling the stress of the college application process. Samo student Sophie Christmas (’23), who has recently completed the college application process, reflects on the experience

“The dropping acceptance rates absolutely affected the colleges I applied to,” Christmas said. “I applied to less schools than freshman me thought I would and I was 10 times more scared. People with 4.0, 12 APs and seven clubs were getting rejected from top schools and schools I wanted to attend, so I had to spend more time on my essays than I thought I would.” 

Samo students going through the application process have resources at their disposal such as the College and Career Center. The assistant there, Stephanie Savage, describes how the declining acceptance rates have affected Samo students.

“There have been more applications because of COVID,” Savage said. “Now everyone’s catching on, so there has definitely been more.” Savage said.

One of Samo’s college counselors, Mr. Flores, says his biggest piece of advice for students looking to apply to college is to have a variety of different schools open to you. He says applying to a few “reach schools” such as an Ivy League school is not a bad idea, even with their dropping acceptance rates. Also applying to some “safety schools” is a good idea; these are schools that students feel confident they will get into in case they don’t get accepted into their school of choice.

Many colleges and universities across the country have been experiencing different admission changes, including dropping acceptance rates. There are still definitely ways to get around these recent trends, even if that means not getting into your dream school.

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