College Admissions: Now and Then

It's that time of year again. For many high school seniors, the madness associated with March has nothing to do with college basketball and everything to do with college admissions.

If you have a college degree, chances are, you've gone through it all yourself. GPA, essays, activities, the SAT...the college admissions process has certainly never been easy. But today, it's never been more difficult. If you were a senior applying today, would you still get in with the same application you sent in years ago?

The ever-escalating admissions atmosphere has affected the difficulty of getting into schools that used to be considered safer bets. With record numbers of applicants, colleges have become dramatically more selective today than in years past. This trend is definitely apparent in southern California schools. Last year, San Diego State University, a popular choice for many Carlsbad applicants, had a plummeting acceptance rate of 36.4%. The University of Southern California saw its rate drop to 24.3%. And Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo now has an acceptance rate of 37.3%.

Even Stanford, a school that has always been incredibly selective, has become even more so-- just when you thought a school couldn't be pickier, Stanford got pickier. This year, Stanford accepted 725 students of the 6,103 who applied early action, leaving only about 1,705 spots for the few chosen from the predicted 30,000 applicants in the regular decision pool. These applicants have yet to hear their decisions.

Numbers like these have turned the college admissions process into an obsession. For many, a nightmare.

When before, students could feel comfortable with a few schools on their application list, it's now commonplace to have 10-15 colleges on the list. And it’s not because kids enjoy all of the extra essays they have to write. It’s because the odds are against them. It’s likely that they won’t get in to most of the schools they apply to, so why put all the eggs into one basket? It’s like having a stock portfolio: you don’t put all your money into one investment. You diversify. You reduce the risk.

It isn’t just the sheer number of applications on the rise, either. It’s the pressure of standardized testing. Just eight years ago, kids taking the SAT were shooting for a possible score of 1600. Nine years before that, the SAT was only out of 1510 points. In 2005, the "new SAT" was introduced, adding the essay section that makes the SAT worth 2400 points total. So if you applied to schools earlier than 2005, give yourself a high-five for not being in my generation. Of course, one good thing about my generation is that more students are now choosing to sidestep the SAT by taking the ACT, an option that all colleges accept as equivalent to the SAT. In fact, a few colleges, such as Cal Poly SLO, even prefer the ACT. Some students may find the ACT easier than the SAT, some don’t. The smart thing to do is try practice tests in both to see which test works better.

As if the SAT and ACT weren’t enough, colleges require more. Today, many ask for SAT Subject Tests (sneaky little mini-tests offered in different subject areas like U.S. History or Spanish), class rank (unless your school is non-ranking, like Carlsbad High, which can sometimes be a detriment to admission) and endless supplemental essays and questionnaires (in addition to the essays you already had to write).

Now, in 2013, it seems like it would be easier to win the lottery than get into some of the colleges that were slam dunks back in the day (although that idea might not be half-bad—with skyrocketing tuition rates, winning the lottery could certainly put a drop in the bucket). So, going back to the original question, would you still get in? It depends. It’s tough comparing test scores and GPAs when it’s
all changed so much, but if you’re curious whether your score back then would
have been up to par, it’s easy to Google charts that compare “Old SAT” scores to
“New SAT” scores. That said, if you were a hard worker then, you’d probably be the same student now, and you’d be fine. Even if your dream school might be a bit more out of reach today due to increased selectivity, you’d still have other options, and they’re better than ever. With the help of the Internet, school counselors, and other resources, the admissions process has become easier to navigate, and students today have more access to great schools they otherwise would never have known existed.

But if you slacked off in high school and managed to skate by, you probably wouldn’t be so lucky today. Not when record numbers of applicants are perfectly willing to take your spot. It pays to put in effort, no matter the year.