International College Counselors Analyzes 2013 College Admissions Statistics

For parents and students making their college decisions, some data compiled by The New York Times may add some perspective to the college admission process. For those questioning why they got accepted into one college and not another, this list will provide some valuable insight.

The Choice published its 2013 listing of college admission statistics for a range of institutions (4.15.13). The list is not a complete list of all 2,000 plus colleges and universities in the U.S., but it shows a number of patterns in admissions for this year. Among the trends in college admissions 2013:

1. Applicant pools are growing larger.  The University of Southern California received applications from 57,000 students.  That’s 10,000 more than they received just two years ago.

2. Colleges are becoming more selective. In some of the more extreme examples, at Harvard, the admit rate dipped to 5.79 percent. At Yale, 6.72 percents of 29,600 applicants were accepted.  Stanford accepted 5.69 percent of its more than 38,800 applicants. The University of Chicago accepted only 8.8 percent of its more than 30,300 applicants.

3.  Holistic college admissions make acceptances and rejections a vastly more complex and unpredictable process.

4.  Colleges are more concerned about their rankings and, as a result, are working to appear more selective.  It’s a trend that reeks of negativity, but the more students a college rejects, the more appealing they look.

5.  (In defense of the colleges) More students who aren’t exactly qualified are applying to elite schools and this is inflating the application numbers.  The Common App is generally the root cause for this.

6. Admission officers are selecting students who are likely to enroll — also because of rankings criteria.

It often matters more what a student does in college than where a student goes. This is why it is so important to find the ‘right fit’ school.  Success can be found at any number of colleges and universities.

For help from an experienced college advisor, please contact the expert college counselors at International College Counselors.  This year, college advisors at International College Counselors helped more than 200 students find, apply to and gain acceptance into the college of their dreams. The expert college counselors at International College Counselors are dedicated to helping students and their families successfully navigate the college application process.