Or, really, for anyone who is quite familiar with recent years’ college applications process:
Has it been an especially competitive and/or irregular year of admissions for the classes of '09, or was it about average? By “irregular”, I mean have you noticed really unusual admittances or rejections, or certain colleges inexplicably turning far more competitive in admissions or comparatively lax this year?
I’ve been wondering because, based on many of the reactions on this messageboad and with friends/fellow classmates in my own life, there were a lot of big surprises. From my own high school class’ experience: a student with a low GPA and an SAT in the 1100s, for instance, was accepted to Georgetown. A girl with an SAT in the 1500s and a 4.1 GPA was waitlisted at Wash U., while a student with an SAT in the 1300s and a 3.8 GPA was rejected from the local state school (and we’re in the South, here). There are a SLEW of surprise rejections and unusual admittances “documented” here on CC’s various messageboards.
We all thought this was really unusual, based on what we’ve been told for the past few years about college admisisons and what to expect. Or maybe we’re been told wrong and are just naive. Or maybe college admissions really are, to put it simply, getting “weird.”
So, if you wouldn’t mind putting your own opinion: was it a surprising and especially competitive year for admissions, with far more qualified students applying and/or comparatively unorthodox admission decisions; OR has it been a pretty average year and I am surprised only because this is the first time I’ve gone through the college process?
<p>We're the baby boom kids. Trends show that the amount of college-age kids will continue to rise until (if I remember correctly) about 2010. This year was a year where a lot of admissions records were broken, and I wasn't surprised. Also remember that many more kids are going to college than ever before, and thus, applying to the top schools will continue to get more competitive. I know my high school experienced some surprises, but nothing extremely extraordinary.</p>
<p>So the number of college applicants is going to keep peaking till five years fron now? Argh. My brother will be graduating high school in 2009, and I can't imagine how hard the high school is going to push him as college admissions get tougher and tougher. It's getting to be somewhat insane. In fact, for quite a long time it's been insane. </p>
<p>I should have thought about the actual fact that more and more kids are being encouraged/enabled to apply for college, along with the fact that there are more of us to begin with. Yes, it's EXTREMELY great that more disadvantaged kids are starting to really apply and be accepted to colleges, BUT it also means that it'll get tougher and put much more strain for all the rest of us, too. I know that might sound "mean", but it's the truth and I don't mean it in a "cruel" way.</p>
<p>Anyhow, thanks for your reply (also, by your profile-- Cornell? Wow!). :)</p>
<p>Here's some data I got from census.gov from 2002 about population (in thousands) by age:</p>
<p>3 and 4 years old 7,679
5 and 6 years old 7,724
7 to 9 years old 12,101
10 to 13 years old 16,926
14 and 15 years old 8,149
16 and 17 years old 8,131
18 and 19 years old 7,907</p>
<p>Adjusting for the age interval, we can figure that there are about 8293 thousand kids on average in each of the groups from 7 to 13. So it'll peak somewhere around the 10-year-olds in 2002, so the current 12-year-olds. They'll be applying to college about five years from now. So, the number of high school seniors will peak around 2010. Add in the fact that more and more kids are applying to college each year, and it looks like this wave of extreme admissions isn't going anywhere soon.</p>
<p>It gets just a little bit harder every year, although this year it's been horrible (at least from my school, probably cause we've had some reputation damaging cases recently).</p>
<p>There are always surprises though when you just look at numbers, often because of factors you don't see, such as essays, ec's, recs and interviews. So people you might not expect to get into good schools do and vice-versa.</p>
<p>peals - washu is known for waitlisting very qualified applicants thinking they will not attend, for both washu and tufts, it doesnt really mean anything, but i believe that it is true this year has been more competitive.</p>
<p>I've been on board here for the past three years and this year seemed about the same as previous years. No real surprises to me --- most of the unhappy results are, as always, for kids who aim too high without getting solid matches and good bets in place first.</p>
<p>mercury-
Interesting stats but a little hard to decipher as all the groups are not equal-- some lump age ranges of 2 yrs, and the middle group (10-13, inclusive I assume) would then be 4 years. Any chance to find statistics stratified equally by age?</p>