<p>While the Common Application has made the application process easier, it has also made it harder to get into competitive colleges. Where people use to apply to 3-5, now they find it so easy to apply to 10 or more....and especially true for colleges if they waive application feees for using it. I think what started as a good idea has had a terrible effect and we are all kidding ourselves about selectivity and ranking because this application has totally inflated admission applications, decreased accpetances. I think there should be a limit to the amount of schools a student can submit the common app to and tie it into their ssn so it can be limited. Just a thought.</p>
<p>We can, and have, talked this issue up and down and around every way imaginable. If the common app has increased the number of applications per student (and I believe it has) then it will also force colleges to admit MORE, not fewer students, because holding all else equal, their yield will drop.</p>
<p>The illusion that is created is that almost every college reports some kind of record number of applications, but they have to be very careful they don't interpret the increase in applications as a genuine increse in the number of students who truly want to attend.</p>
<p>What is really causing the increase in selectivity is the increasing number of kids applying to colleges, with a relatively constant number of seats at the most selective colleges. After all, even if kids apply to 12 colleges, they can only attend one at a time. If it were only the same number of kids applying to a greater number of colleges, then the admissions rate might fall, but so would the yield, and colleges would have to go to their waiting list to fill up their slots. I am not in favor of a shotgun approach to applying to colleges, but I don't think putting a limit on the number of colleges a kid can apply to will affect the issue of falling acceptance rates at the most selective colleges -- that is driven primarily by demographics and by a larger proportion of the college-age population wanting to go to college.</p>
<p>NJres, yield is the ratio of enrolled students over admitted students. </p>
<p>Considering that the enrollment is pretty static at most schools, the only way to increase a yield is to accept fewer students. Fwiw, I don't think that many students or families pay much attention to the yield numbers. On the other hand, it is an important number for the school officials --especially enrollment managers-- and a few alums who consider the yield a big part of their bragging arsenal.</p>
<p>You're right dadx3..but I think it's both. How many colleges did you apply to? How many more did or will your kid apply to?</p>
<p>Actually, an international friend of mine reported two days ago that her son received a formal rejection letter from MIT - TO WHICH HE NEVER APPLIED (and never paid an application fee). He had earlier filled out a simple demographics form in order to receive applications materials. She is expecting the same thing is going to happen with Princeton, where he also had an interview, but never completed the application.</p>
<p>I don't think college admissions offices are impeccable about keeping track of the paperwork.</p>
<p>My daughter submitted complete applications or portions of applications to five other colleges before she was admitted to her ED school. After the ED acceptance came, she sent letters to each of the other schools, withdrawing her applications. Nevertheless, in the months that followed, two of the schools contacted her to warn her that her application was "incomplete."</p>
<p>This is not reassuring.</p>
<p>My daughter received rejection letters from schools whose applications she began but did not complete. They may do that to boost their selectivity numbers; they may also do that to make certain the files are closed out definitively.</p>
<p>Once upon a time I got a letter telling me that I didn't have to bother completing my incomplete application, but that they couldn't admit me unless I paid the application fee.</p>
<p>also, a lot of schools have no application fees if you apply online. i'd assume that bumps up applications.</p>
<p>My S got a rejection letter from a school from which he <em>repeatedly</em> attempted to withdraw his application after hearing about his ED acceptance. The same exact thing happened to another kid in his class. I am sure that this was no accident.</p>