College Admissions: Are Elite Colleges Losing Their Edge?

Monday, February 20, 2012

Cristiana Quinn, GoLocal College Admissions Expert

For the first time in a decade, application rates for elite colleges are falling off.

Blame it on demographics or economic fears, but after a decade of applications surging at competitive institutions, the tide has started to recede. Although not all colleges have posted numbers for the class of 2016, the trend seems to be a decrease in applications at many elite schools or very modest increases.

Following a record breaking 32% rise in applicants last year, Columbia saw a 9% decrease this year. Harvard may have expected a jump in candidates because they reinstituted their early admission program, but surprisingly experienced roughly a 2% decrease. The rest of Ivy League admissions also appeared to be sluggish. UPENN, Cornell, Dartmouth and Yale posted modest 2- 5% increases. New England’s elite liberal arts colleges also experienced stagnant admissions numbers with Amherst, Bowdoin, Colby, Colgate, Middlebury, Wesleyan and Williams all posting 0-5% increases in apps. Bates and Tufts both saw a 5% decline in applicants, and Holy Cross posted just over a 2% decrease.

Who is trending up?

Where have applications been up? At state universities and scandal ridden colleges. 17% more candidates applied to The University of California at Berkeley this year vs. last year, and UCLA had an 18% increase in apps. Miami of Ohio was up 13%, while UCONN and U. Delaware were up roughly 10%. Ironically, colleges and universities rocked by recent scandals do not appear to have suffered from negative publicity. Applications soared 13% at Claremont McKenna College amidst their SAT reporting fraud and at most of its sister schools in the Claremont Consortium (Scripps up 9%, Harvey Mudd up 12%, and Pitzer up 13%). Penn State apps rose by about 4% after the Sandusky charges, and UVA saw an 18% increase despite the Yeardley Love murder trial beginning.

Going south

The southeast has also been a winner in the college application game this year. Although it’s been mild this winter in the northeast, it probably hasn’t been warm enough to erase the memories of 6 foot snow banks last year. The result is a surge in applications on sunnier campuses. The University of Richmond posted an 18% increase in apps, William and Mary was up 5%, Wake Forest increased 13%, Elon jumped 10%, Duke was up 6% and West Virginia apps surged by almost 10%.

What does it all mean?

For many years, we have been watching application numbers grow exponentially due to a peak in the number of students who were turning 18. Now with demographics changing and continuing economic woes, the numbers appear to be slowing down. More students are opting for state universities or community colleges to reduce costs. Others are not applying to as many colleges because application fees often range from $45-$85 per school, not including the cost of filing the CSS Profile for financial aid at some colleges. This doesn’t mean that it’s suddenly become “easy” to get into Harvard or Amherst, by any means. It just means that this could be the start of a “leveling off” of the craziness in college competition over the next decade.

Cristiana Quinn, M.Ed. is the founder of College Admission Advisors, LLC which provides strategic college counseling, SAT prep and athletic recruiting services http://www.collegeadvisorsonline.com. ;