Why Do College Acceptance Rates Change?
Getting accepted into their top choice university is one of the greatest accomplishments a student can make in their academic career. High school students and their parents, counselors, and mentors will spend months perfecting their applications, and with so many colleges having competitive acceptance rates, applicants need every advantage they can take. However, college acceptance rates are not static. They change over time, sometimes drastically. But what is the cause? Why do college acceptance rates change even if other factors like student body and school rankings remain steady?
Increasing Applicants
One of the major factors in college acceptance rates is the number of applicants. How many people send in an application each year determines how many applicants admissions officers can accept and how many will be turned away. According to EducationData.org, while the number of college applicants has generally stayed stable over the past several years, the number of students applying to college in the US has been steadily increasing since the 1970s, with a major spike in applications happening around the late 2010s.
As economic and societal conditions have changed over the decades, the number of high schoolers applying to college has also increased. This has driven schools to become more selective in their admissions process, with top US schools having employed holistic reviews to decide on their students for years now.
Changing Testing and Application Policies
The COVID-19 pandemic caused great changes throughout the US and the world, and the realm of higher education was no exception. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many high school students lost access to standardized testing, which would have made millions of students in the United States ineligible for many colleges. In response, these colleges updated their application policies, switching to “test-optional” to ensure students could still apply.
In the years since, many universities have continued changing their application and testing policies. Some schools have kept test-optional in place, while many others have reverted to their pre-pandemic policies. These changes in testing requirements have added an element of confusion for students and educators.
High school students already face many challenges and expectations as their high school careers come to a close. Not knowing which schools have which requirements can influence where students apply, which in turn also affects their outcomes.
Changes within the Universities
Educational institutions in the US do not stay static forever. As new faculty are cycled through, discoveries are made, budgets change, and society evolves, a university may change drastically over several decades. Public opinion also plays a role, especially as rankings among top universities change over time.
How a school changes will also affect which students apply, why, and how admissions officers select them.
Acceptance Rates vs Yield Rates
In the same vein as the number of applicants per year, a school’s yield rate is another massive factor in college admissions.
The yield rate is the percentage of students who attend the school after being offered acceptance. For many students, college admissions is not as binary as “accepted” or “denied.” High schoolers often apply to more than one school. Inevitably, the number of acceptances will always be higher than the number of students admitted into college, and not even the highest-rated school boasts a 100% yield rate.
Combined with other aspects of the admissions process, such as rollbacks, the number of applicants, and something as unprecedented as a global pandemic, acceptance rates are bound to vary year over year.
Economic and Societal Factors
Unlike most grade schools, university is a great expense for students and families. Not only financially, but earning a degree also takes years of study and hard work. As schools have become more selective throughout the decades, so have applicants. Many young scholars today have more access to resources, information, and tools to research schools. As the economy’s demand for more specialized workers increases, students are also becoming more selective with the programs and opportunities a school offers.
Traveling or even moving states for school is not an uncommon practice for many students. As information becomes more widely accessible, students are more aware of schools’ reputations, programs, faculty, and alumni than ever. Today, even the smallest story about a school can spread over the internet and, in turn, affect the decision of prospective applicants—positively and negatively.
As the cycle of information continues to increase in speed and scope, more widely fluctuating admittance rates among schools may become more common in the future.
How to Choose the Right School for Your Field
Choosing the correct school is one—among many—of the important decisions a high school student will make as they enter higher education. A school’s acceptance rate is just one statistic students should look at. Other important information includes the school’s graduation rate, the average test scores and GPAs of students, and the location, size, and number of school attendants.
But students don’t have to do it alone. With InGenius Prep’s Candidacy Building and Application Counseling programs, students will work with InGenius Prep’s team of Former Admissions Officers from Ivy League schools. Our experts will help your student create a robust school list and work to craft the best college applications that’ll make your student a stand-out candidate in the admissions office.
