The College "Acceptance" Myth

I've been stewing about this for months, as I read news reports about the collective college-admissions anxiety among members of this year's biggest-ever (pdf) high-school graduating class, but didn't want to rain on the parades of so many bright-eyed seniors.  I decided to pipe up after reading today's NYTimes The Choice blog, which reported on 258 colleges with open seats, after the nationwide May 1st commitment deadline.  

Here's the bottom line, kids: most--in fact the overwhelming majority--of colleges and universities do not have highly competitive admissions standards. In other words, it's really not that hard to get admitted to college. Sure, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, et. al., have single-digit acceptance rates, but that's not the norm.  Take a look at the U.S. News rankings.  Among "National Universities", once you look past the top 40 or so, acceptance rates are steadily above 50%, e.g., Pitt.-56%, Boston U.-59%, Case Western-75%, Washington State-76%, Oklahoma-89%, Oregon-87%. And that's not to mention liberal-arts colleges or "master's universities". Or, schools on this list of colleges and universities with the highest acceptance rates--all above 90%.

Point is, high-school students generally know (or should have a teacher or counselor tell them) by 11th grade or so, what kinds of colleges they're likely to get into based upon their grades and SAT/ACT scores.  For the vast majority, it's not Yale, Amherst, Georgetown, etc. If you apply to schools whose admissions standards match your credentials, it is very likely that you will be accepted.  At most schools, it is a near certainty.

The real game is, of course, not admissions but financial aid. Many colleges offer merit-based scholarships to students whose credentials (primarily class rank or SAT/ACT scores) will help elevate the school's ranking, and will admit but not offer merit-based aid to students without such credentials.  Students and parents are catching on.  I recently ran into a former student who is graduating this year.  I'm sure this kid was admitted to several excellent schools, but opted for a far less prestigious school that offerred him a full ride. Pretty savvy at 18 to give a little prestige in exchange for not being mired in student loan debt for the rest of his life. Wish I had been so savvy at 25 when I went to law school .