The Common App opened Saturday, launching the college admissions season for high school seniors at a turbulent time for higher education. While many schools are deeply worried about filling their classes, the most elite institutions will admit only a tiny percentage of the tens of thousands of students who apply.
Highly selective schools represent an insurance policy for parents, trusted brands that they believe will provide an edge, said Mitchell L. Stevens, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. “And the more economic uncertainty we face, the more valuable that insurance becomes.”
The entire application process has been disrupted in recent years by the pandemic, shifting testing policies, a Supreme Court ruling on race-conscious admissions, artificial intelligence, federal investigations, and the long list goes on.
Here are some changes to admissions to watch for this school year:
Some schools are dropping supplemental essays
Top colleges are dropping the requirement that students write essays specific to their school. The Common App, which allows students to apply to more than 1,200 member schools, includes a personal essay.
Cornell University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Washington University in St. Louis, Tulane University, the Georgia Institute of Technology and others recently joined schools such as the University of Virginia, which eliminated its supplemental essay requirement last year. (Cornell still requires applicants to write essays about the specific school they’re hoping to attend but removed its university-wide essay.)
There can be a few reasons to change the requirement. Losing an essay makes it easier on students and on admissions employees. Reducing the hurdles required can boost the number of applicants. And because of widespread AI use, an essay is even less reliably an authentic reflection of the student’s voice than it had been.
Some schools had already reduced the number of essays and added short-answer questions that are less intimidating for students (such as, “What brings you joy?”).
At Tulane, Shawn Abbott, vice president for enrollment management and dean of admission, said it seemed unnecessary to ask students to jump through the hoop of writing an additional essay about why they were applying to Tulane. “The reality was, it wasn’t having much of an influence on admissions decisions,” he said, given the weight they put on many other academic and personal factors, such as the transcript and letters of recommendation. “It seemed silly to continue to ask the question.”
More top schools are requiring ACT or SAT scores
Many schools stopped requiring students to submit college entrance exam scores in 2020, when the pandemic shut down in-person test centers. Even before covid, some schools had stopped requiring tests out of concern that the scores reflected societal inequities, with some students unable to afford test-prep classes or tutors and unaware of free resources such as the Khan Academy’s digital course.
Most colleges remain test optional. But the ground is shifting. Dartmouth College was the first Ivy League school to require scores again, after researchers determined that the tests were a good predictor of success in college and were helpful in identifying applicants who were the first in their family to go to college, had less affluent parents or were from rural or urban areas. Now, many of the most selective schools — including all of the Ivy League — either require the scores or have said they will in future admissions cycles.
With fears of grade inflation, colleges need more data points to determine whether students can succeed there, several experts said.
Heather Shows, director of college counseling for the Governor’s Academy in Massachusetts, said she’ll be closely watching what the large, selective and influential University of California decides to do; it has declined to even look at standardized test scores in recent years at its campuses across the state but is reviewing that policy. “Will there be a reinstatement of the test across the board? Will it be test optional? And then what’s the domino effect on other schools? I’m definitely keeping an eye on that.”
Acceptance rates may continue to dip
The number of students applying to college continues to grow, and the number of applications they submit keeps rising, as well. This past year through March, there were 2 percent more applicants submitting 5 percent more applications to returning members than last year, according to data from Common App — 1.4 million applicants submitted 9.4 million applications. And more people are applying to the most selective schools.
At some places, the numbers are staggering. Nearly 55,000 students applied to Yale University last year. Almost 68,000 students applied to Georgia Tech, a record. And more than 145,000 prospective freshmen applied to UCLA — the most of any school in the country.
Common App makes it easier to apply to more schools. But those rising applicant numbers drove down acceptance rates, with the most selective schools admitting just 5 percent or less of those who apply.
The cycle is increasing pressure on students. “The levee’s going to break,” said Ashley L. Bennett, director of college counseling for the Emma Willard School in New York, who worries about the stress on students during the process.
Students used to apply to just a handful of schools, she said, but now many apply to as many as possible because they think, ”Okay, if I cast a wide net, I’ll catch at least one or two big fish.”
Early decision is increasingly important in selective admissions
Many schools offer the option of applying by a fall deadline — often Nov. 1 — for students who are willing to commit to a single school before the more traditional January application deadline.
That’s because schools need to know that they will have a complete class and, with students applying to more schools than ever and greater murkiness about whether applicants will commit, early rounds help lock in students who are eager to attend.
The increased focus on early decision is in part driven by yield — the percentage of accepted students who enroll. Yield is closely watched as a key indicator of consumer demand and creditworthiness. And a strong credit rating makes it easier and more affordable for schools to borrow money for big capital projects on campus.
There are variations in early application rules and deadlines, with some schools even offering multiple early rounds.
Binding early decision programs disadvantage students who need to be able to compare financial aid offers to choose a school they can afford. But early rounds alleviate stress on those who know they will accept their first choice — and admission rates can be considerably higher than they are with regular decision in the spring.
“We encourage all our students to apply as early as possible,” said James Orr, senior vice provost for student success at UNC.
Bennett said at least half of the class at her school applies early, with some hoping for a slight advantage in admissions and some hoping to get an answer sooner. Every year, some tell her, “I want to have a nice senior year, I don’t want to be stressed all year about college.”
International students are a big unknown this year
Some experts say recent policy decisions could deter international students from applying this year. A new rule will bar most foreign students and exchange visitors from staying in the country for more than four years unless they are granted an extension from the federal government. Delays in visa processing and stricter scrutiny of international students could also add to uncertainty and change the applicant pool.
“I think it will be very interesting to see what choices international students make,” Shows said.
Continued fallout from the Supreme Court ruling ending race-conscious admissions
In 2023, the Supreme Court upended college admissions with a ruling rejecting race-based affirmative action. Some colleges then sought other ways to keep their classes diverse, including adding essay questions about identity, recruiting more in certain areas and seeking students from lower-income families.
But the Trump administration has demanded admissions data and launched investigations into whether schools are discriminating against White and Asian students by giving preferences to Black and Hispanic students. The administration objects to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and has insisted that schools cannot use proxies for race.
Some experts predict that pressure and scrutiny will inevitably lead colleges to be more cautious about seeking a diverse class and more apt to rely on quantitative measures such as test scores and grades.
“I feel badly for enrollment leaders who are having to interact too often with the general counsels of their institutions and much less with their admissions staff about institutional priorities and supporting students in the application process,” said Emmi Harward, executive director of the Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools, “because everything has become politicized, and no institution wants to be the next one threatened with legal action.”
And finally, some good news: It doesn’t have to be this hard
While it’s easy to fixate on the dismal odds of getting into top schools, most colleges in the United States accept most applicants — and some don’t even require applications, offering direct admission. An increasing number of schools and states promise admission to students based on their grades. Common App announced it intends to expand its direct admissions program this year, as well.
“The majority of institutions in America are not selective,” said Angel Pérez, chief executive officer of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “They admit 70 percent or more.
“It is actually not that hard to get into college.”