<p>Hi Guys,</p>
<p>I am not an American student so I might not have as much information on this. Correct me thus if I am wrong but is this high school graduating population decreasing this year? If so, can we expect an increase in the ED acceptance rate of Columbia schools like CC and SEAS (albeit a small increase). </p>
<p>According to this website, <a href="http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/ivy-league-admissions-statistics/%5B/url%5D">http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/ivy-league-admissions-statistics/</a> if you scroll down it gives a 18% and 27% rate for CC and SEAS respectively. Can we expect this to increase this year?</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>I would be interested in knowing this as well</p>
<p>I am not aware of the high school population going down nationally, is it? </p>
<p>Anyways, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of top schools had a tiny increase in acceptance rates until the economy picks up again due to some students taking scholarship packages elswhere. I doubt it is going to be very significant in terms of increasing anyones chances of getting in though.</p>
<p>^apparently the class of 2013 is the peak. The graduating population is declining starting with '14.</p>
<p>Interesting! I wonder if that keeps in mind immigration numbers?</p>
<p>hearsay is a bad source of information. use facts people. first rarely has it been said that the demographics are peaking, but rather it is often said that one of two things will happen - there will be a slight decrease in the aggregate college going population followed by a plateau, or it will just plateau. starting around 2017 immigrant populations that have moved to the country really start to bolt growth and things will expand again in the south and southwest with Hispanics making up 1/4 of the college going population by 2030.</p>
<p>though data points are skewed a bit based on year ranges, gives you a sense of the overall population figures- [School</a> Enrollment: October 2007 - Detailed Tables](<a href=“http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school/cps2007.html]School”>http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school/cps2007.html). this is from the collegeboard - [Higher</a> Education Landscape](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/trends/higher-ed-landscape]Higher”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board) - with a good graph that shows the slight decrease in hs graduates, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a decrease in college going populations.</p>
<p>there are a whole lot of other factors that might contribute to an increase in applications - including higher college going rates, if only about 50% of the country is going to college now and about 30% graduating, there is a lot of room for improvement. so even if the hs population decreases slightly, higher hs retention, graduation and college going rates might mitigate this issue.</p>
<p>then you have the fact that students anxiety is at an all-time high and they continue to increase the number of schools they apply to. the abnormal figures top colleges receive is far more because of the 6, 7, 8 or higher application someone is submitting than necessarily can be explained by increasing high school aged populations.</p>
<p>so what you have is a lot of demographers trying to predict a situation that has too many variables. if columbia’s figures decrease is it because the population decreases? could it be because of decreasing popularity of the school? greater fear from families during the tough economic time? it could just as easily increase if students continue to apply to record number of schools, or if students who previously never considered columbia or college start applying.</p>
<p>so whatever intrigue this topic may bring, it is more complicated than a USA Today article. and how it will play out in the admissions game is very unpredictable. even if you do take the trends to heart and look at how far the dip goes, it isn’t as if it is going to be significantly fewer, we are talking maybe regressing to '03 numbers. when you add that more foreigners are applying to US schools, this might also mitigate an actual decrease.</p>
<p>I also heard that a lot of public institutions are getting more applications because of the economy, especially in NY. So, I’m guessing that would make it less competitive for schools such as NYU and Columbia… especially NYU.</p>
<p>adgeek is on the money, the decrease in the number of kids going to college as a result of a decrease in population is not statistically significant, it’s so close to a negligible factor, that it’s essentially zero. If Columbia’s apps decrease then that has more to do with a short term decline in popularity (or other school switching to common app). If Columbia’s apps increase it has to do with us gaining popularity (admissions officers working harder etc etc.) in the long term we’ve seen a steady increase in the apps and a decrease in the application for the following reasons (i expect this trend to continue next year):</p>
<p>1) high schools are paranoid and are applying to 15 schools instead of 5
2) nyc is improving and is now the safest (and definitely the best) big city in the US
3) the admissions office markets us a little better now and works harder
4) general increase in prestige relative to other colleges (Obama, nobel prize winners, highest us news undergrad ranking in 20 years, ranked number 1 research univ in the country by center for measuring univ performance, with a stead climb)
5) better financial aid, increasing yield rd and encouraging ed applicants.
6) princeton and harvard ending ED, so some applicants might just want to lock in a spot at a top univ early and choose us over competitors.</p>
<p>well, collegeboard says that the population is peaking</p>
<p>However, there are people applying to more colleges, and admit rates will continue to go down.</p>
<p>I hope Upenn’s ED rate stays at 30%…</p>