I’m currently a sophomore in high school and I’m really worried and concerned that HYPS’ (and every other college) acceptance rates will go down more (3 more years for me) as time goes on due to more people applying to elite colleges and of how competitive everyone in the school environment is getting…I read somewhere that about 20 years ago HYPS’ acceptance rates sat somewhere between 10-20 percent, and that as more and more time goes on acceptance rates will go even lower than it is today. My question is, how lower will acceptance rates go down in 3 years from now when I’m applying as a senior, and will colleges expect more from those applicants?
The thing about comparing admissions rates today vs. 20+ years ago is that you need to think about the “denominator” of # of applications as being composed of the high school student population x % of hs students applying to college x applications per student.
While class sizes at college haven’t grown that much (the “numerator”), high school student populations have (think about population growth compounded over long periods of time). Even more so, the common app + electronic submission etc. has helped reduce the friction in the application process significantly, and so both the % of hs students applying and the applications/student have increased.
This is all to say that I wouldn’t use history as a guide for future drops in admission rates.
If the acceptance rates at HYP go down by the time you apply to college, there is literally NOTHING you can do about it. As such, you’re wasting your time and energy fretting about something completely out of your control – so let it go.
HYP currently have so many applicants to choose from, Admissions COULD fill their entire freshman class with students with have perfect test scores – but they don’t. Ditto with students who perfect GPA’s or students who are off the charts on EC’s. Again this is all out of your control, so just let it go and move on! Seriously!
If you worry about low admission rate, work harder on your soccer skills to become a recruited athlete. That’s much easier than excelling in academics.
I’d consider this mathematically in terms of reversion to the mean. Colleges with ultra-low acceptance rates may in the future offer somewhat higher rates in accordance with their historical averages. Yes, you could model with respect to trends, but this requires many assumptions, and therefore may lead to an incorrect conclusion.
I sure hope not…