Corrections Appended
In accordance with the rising numbers of applications Dartmouth has received in recent years, many colleges and universities have seen comparable surges in applicants, causing admission rates to drop, according to media reports. The rapidly increasing pool of college-bound individuals who are applying to the same set of institutions means qualified students face heightened competition for positions at colleges that are not growing fast enough to keep pace. In turn, post-secondary schools have been forced to become increasingly selective when admitting applicants.
"Our selectivity has gone from about 15.5 percent to about 11.5 percent," Maria Laskaris, dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth. "It's more difficult now to be admitted."
According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 19 million citizens enrolled in college in 2009, up from 18.4 million in 2008 and 15.9 million in 2004.
"We're at a point in our society where there are incredibly increased numbers of students in the education pipeline," Joyce Smith, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Climbing enrollment figures reflect significant increases in international students, including 103,260 students from India studying nationwide in 2009 a 9-percent increase from 2008 and 98,510 students from China a 21-percent increase from 2008, according to The New York Times.
"It's not just that the numbers are going up it's how the numbers are going up," Richard Hazelton '90, senior associate director of college advising at The Hotchkiss School, an independent high school in Connecticut, said. "[Schools] are attracting applicants worldwide that they wouldn't have even considered up to five years ago."
Hazelton named Brazil and countries in Asia as some of the top regions with "proliferating applications" to U.S. institutions.
Online applications also contribute to the skyrocketing application numbers.
Students now apply to more colleges as many as 10 to 15 schools due to the increased ease of application, according to Smith.
"If they can complete an application electronically, that's a lot easier than filling out applications at the kitchen table," she said.
Student anxiety about the college process may also contribute to the escalating application numbers, according to Paul Ribeiro, director of guidance at Darien High School in Connecticut.
"Students hear about people not getting into schools, so we're seeing more and more students apply to more and more schools," he said. "They're applying to 15 to 18 schools."
In light of the recent economic downturn, many high school seniors apply to schools they believe will secure them a better job in the future, causing certain schools to see a particularly significant growth in application numbers.
"[Students and families] believe the universal name recognition and the prestige level of a college four years hence might give a student a leg up in a competitive job market," Terry Giffen, director of college counseling at The Taft School in Connecticut, said. "That's exacerbated by rankings in [U.S. News and World Report] and other such rankings. It's driving people to apply to the same 40 to 50 colleges in America."
All the Ivy League institutions excluding Yale University as well as Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University and the University of Chicago saw an increase in application numbers for their incoming freshman classes, according to BusinessWeek. Dartmouth and Harvard University attracted the most applicants in their histories, Businessweek reported.
Harvard received over 30,000 applications for the first time, an increase of 5 percent over 2009, The Harvard Crimson reported.
Dartmouth received 18,778 applications, up from 18,130 applications in 2009 and 16,538 in 2008.
As the applicant pool grows, freshman class sizes at many schools remain the same or grow only slightly.
Dartmouth has so far accepted a total of 2,165 students for the Class of 2014, according to a College press release. The group contains 41 more students than had been accepted by April of last year.
In 2005, the College accepted 2,546 applicants, following a trend of increased acceptance numbers, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Harvard accepted 2,110 applicants, 64 more students than last year, The Crimson reported. In 2005, Harvard accepted 2,074 students, also showing a trend of increased figures.
The modest growth in acceptances is partially due to uncertainty among institutions over what their admissions yields will be, Smith said.
"Admissions professionals are having a harder time predicting the yields from all their efforts," she said. "[Colleges] are sending out more offers of admission than they can serve because they know there will be more fallout."
Still, escalating application numbers have caused colleges to report record-low acceptance rates.
In 2010, MIT, Stanford, Dartmouth and Harvard announced their lowest admission rates to date.
In 2007, Dartmouth accepted 15.2 percent of its applicants, according to a Dartmouth press release. This year, the College accepted 11.5 percent.
Decreasing admission rates reflect a rising applicant standard, according to several admissions experts.
"There are kids who are not getting into [Ivy League schools] this year who would have been very easy admits two to three years ago," Hazelton said.
The mean SAT scores for admitted Dartmouth students have risen substantially over the past decade. The Class of 2014 scored an average of 733 in the critical reading portion of the test, 741 in math and 740 in writing, according to a College press release. The Class of 2013 scored a 729 in critical reading, 733 in math and 732 in writing, The Dartmouth previously reported. The Class of 2006 earned a 702 in verbal and 713 in math, according to the 2002 edition of The Princeton Review's annual college guide, The Best 345 Colleges.
"The average SAT scores for incoming freshmen are going up and the average GPA is going up," Ribeiro said. "The quality of students applying is definitely increasing. [Colleges] have more of a choice."
The current admissions climate may force some admissions officers to employ SAT and GPA cutoffs for applicants, according to Giffen.
"As the applications have increased, we are seeing some schools who are so overwhelmed by the application volumes that there become effective cutoffs," he said. "Some colleges have had to look at certain ranges, certain levels of GPA so they can get the work done and get the decisions out."
Such cut-offs prevent colleges from reviewing a student's entire profile, Giffen said.
"What gets lost is the personal qualities," he said. "The competition is so fierce they might not get a chance to have their story be told."
In light of lower admission rates, many college counselors will urge high school seniors in upcoming years to apply to schools they consider more realistic choices.
"We have to be even more direct with our advice that students have to have balanced lists in terms of selectivity," Mark Clevenger, director of college counseling at the Menlo School in California, said. "We'll probably be more conservative and more direct in terms of having a range of schools on the list."
Despite the shift, counselors will still encourage students to apply to elite institutions, according to Hazelton.
"For kids who are capable of doing the work and being competitive at an Ivy League school, it's not going to discourage me from recommending these schools," he said. "My job is to encourage you to aspire and to dream, but at the same time to be realistic. That's a hard line to walk."
