Record low admit rates – and what you can do about it

This year’s numbers are out – and for high school students, they don’t look good. College admit rates reached record lows across the board.

A sampling: Johns Hopkins (18%), Swarthmore (15%), Duke (13%), Stanford (7%) and Harvard (just 6%). Five trends are driving the increasing application volume and decreasing acceptance rates.

• More high school students are graduating, and a higher percentage of them are continuing on to college.
• Because of the hyper-competitive climate, students are hedging their bets and applying to more colleges.
• More international students are applying to US colleges for their undergraduate degree.
• More colleges are accepting the Common Application, making it easier for students to apply.
• Financial aid programs at the most highly selective colleges are quite generous, sometimes making a college’s final cost as affordable as an in-state public university.

Early figures show that eight colleges accepted fewer than 10% of applicants, and another nine accepted between 11 – 20% of applicants. So how do you get admitted to these highly selective colleges? Or any of the colleges that once took half their applicants, but now only admit a quarter?

It’s no longer just about having top grades and scores, though that surely helps. Colleges want to admit students who are interesting, who are different, who have something to contribute to the campus community, who show passion for an academic subject or are dedicated to a cause.

What can high school students and parents do? The key is to start early. As early as possible, in fact. You want to do interesting things over the summer months, or during the school year, or become a leader, or all of the above. It’s about differentiating yourself, coming across as talented and well-balanced.