<p>On the last day of school I was discussing my plans with my teacher once I graduate. One thing my teacher told me was that every year it is getting harder to be admitted to colleges. Is this true? It kind of scares because now I believe I wont be admitted to known of them. Can someone enlighten me?</p>
<p>In a way, yes. This past year (freshman class of 2016), MIT had the lowest ever admission rate in its 150-year history. Waitlists seem to be slowly turning into automatic rejection for me.</p>
<p>Then again, part of the reason is that more students apply just for the heck of it. So I wouldn’t worry too much about it; admissions is getting slightly more competitive, but it shouldn’t affect you too badly.</p>
<p>It is especially harder when state schools cut the number of seats due to declining budgets.</p>
<p>“Is getting harder to get into a college?” Of course not. There are literally tens of thousands of unused spaces in US colleges every year. Now certainly the competition for the very selective ones is at an all time high-- but college in general? They are knocking down doors to try to get you to enroll.</p>
<p>What students have to weigh is the selection of the major AND the school. You don’t really need to have a Top-10 school if you are going to major in computer science and work in software engineering.</p>
<p>Now the finance/accounting/management/marketing world may nitpick your school’s brand name but not really in engineering and software development.</p>
<p>So would guys consider USC and UCLA with a physics major hard to get into?</p>
<p>I think it’s hard at top schools because a lot of kids think colleges just want the same skills and activites that worked in hs. More kids apply, because they can; many don’t really know what that college is about, how it sees itself, what sorts of kids that college likes- even, in too many cases, what the possible major they wrote down is all about. Or, how it’s handled at that school. </p>
<p>Otoh, if you apply to colleges where you truly are an overall match, in personality, energy, academics and potential to succeed there (not only in classes but on campus,) if you are prepared for that major and can express your interest well, if you know that school beyond it’s media rep and beautiful buildings, if you know how you’ll fit and (try to) produce and experiment- and can show that in your app- your chances go up quite well.</p>
<p>The admit percentages aren’t reported for all highly qualified kids, the finalists- they’re reported for all candidates. There’s that (supposedly) Harvard line that in the end, they have 3x the number of qualified candidates as seats. Ie, a 1 of 3 change if you are truly a catch, realy a match. That’s a big difference from just looking at their 92% rejection rate.</p>
<p>"What students have to weigh is the selection of the major AND the school. You don’t really need to have a Top-10 school if you are going to major in computer science and work in software engineering.</p>
<p>Now the finance/accounting/management/marketing world may nitpick your school’s brand name but not really in engineering and software development."</p>
<p>—This made my day. (future engineering student)</p>