1.  During the pandemic, virtually all colleges stopped requiring standardized tests. This meant that more students decided to try their luck at highly selective colleges since they didn’t have to submit a score. As a result, applications soared at schools in the highly selective category. This meant that acceptance rates, already low at these highly selective schools, became even lower. 

2. More colleges joined the common application. For example, the University of Texas opened to the Common Application in the 2022-2023 application cycle, contributing to a large percentage increase in applications from students who no longer had to fill out a separate ApplyTexas or Coalition application but instead could apply easily through the Common Application that they had already filled out.

3. Third, state flagship colleges in the South and the Midwest that have done very well in athletic events have seen a dramatic rise in applications. This trend may also be related to the economic fallout from the pandemic, with many families wanting to take advantage of the lower tuition offered by public institutions. The University of Tennessee is a prime example of this trend, with out-of-state acceptance rates dropping by almost half this year, from 67.2% in 2022 to 33.3% in 2023.

4. The University of California System rededicated itself to California students in 2021, which resulted in the colleges starting to take fewer out-of-state students. Offers to out-of-state students declined by 19% in 2022. Those non-Californians who were counting on UC Berkley or UCLA have taken heed and are applying in droves to other highly selectives and state flagships, increasing the numbers of applicants at those institutions, such as University of Texas, which dropped to a 12% admission rate for non-auto-admitted students.

5. Students are flocking to fewer majors, meaning those majors are becoming more selective at nearly every university. Students wanting to major in business, computer science, nursing, engineering, and biology are seeing lower acceptance for those programs at many universities. 

6. Students applying to highly selective colleges are applying to more of them but these colleges aren’t opening up more freshmen seats. The math here isn’t in students’ favor. If you have a student with their heart set on a highly selective university, we encourage you to watch our most recent webinar on Highly Selective Admissions.

While it’s always been advisable to have a balanced college list, now it may actually mean the difference between having several colleges to choose from in the spring of senior year or only having only one college choice (or worse, no acceptances). We want high school seniors to have many colleges to choose from in the spring of their senior year. That’s why we encourage all students to make sure their college lists are balanced. For a typical A/B student, a balanced list often looks like this: 2 to 3 Reach schools (acceptance rates under 30%), 5 to 7 Possible colleges (acceptance rates 30-65%), and 2 to 3 in the Match category (acceptance rates 65% and over).