ashleychi Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:24 pmDRAFT 1
Application Frustration
By: Ashley Chi and Justin Park
With the bar set higher and higher each year for high school students in things such as the SAT, ACT, and AP tests, and demanding amounts of extracurricular activities, it’s no help to students that colleges are harder to get into each year. Factors this year such as the economic downturn adds to other factors, such as rising competition and higher tuitions, which go against prospective students. Additionally, there has been a reported increase in prospective students, which is expected to continue through to the end of this decade. Combine this factor with increased desire among parents and students to get into elite universities, and you’ve got yourself frustrations and disappointments.
According to a study done by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, applicants that were admitted among the 40 highly ranked public and private institutions fell ¨by an average of about 25 percent between 1986 and 2003.” Additionally, they also found that the chance of being admitted into a four-year institution fell nearly 9 percent from 1972 to 2004.
Other Ivy-League schools have also been affected. Out of 20,194 applicants to Stanford University, only a mere 2,412 students were accepted. This astounding acceptance rate of less than 12% sets the record for the smallest acceptance rate in Stanford’s history. What’s even more startling is that over 90% of the applicants were in the top 10% academically in their respective high schools and 80% had a grade point average of 4.0 or higher. These statistics show that brainpower is not enough anymore to gain appliance into the country’s greatest universities.
The factor that mainly contributed to these low acceptance rates was the economic downturn. Many parents and students may jump to the conclusion that state-funded colleges are the less expensive roads to secondary education. This may not be the case, because many state schools, such as the UC system, are receiving less money from the state because of state budget deficits. However, this may not be the case, as many popular public universities have less than a 50% acceptance rate.
Additionally, students and parents are getting more competitive over the years. More and more students and parents have started to rake up their money and use it at expensive SAT schools in a desperate hope that it would guarantee a spot in one of the better colleges. By and by, even elementary school students are starting to take after-school academic classes to be up and running before the race starts. However, it’s not all in the academics, either. Students are using every trick in the book to make themselves stand out from the others- achieving brilliantly high SAT scores and an outstanding GPA, trying out for different sports, and joining and pioneering a myriad of clubs. There is even an entire college industry devoted to help students gather the most impressive portfolio they could possibly muster. These services can cost up to $40,000, but amazingly, quite a few parents are willing to spend that much money in order to get their child into the college of their choice
The main thing to do, researchers say, is to make sure that you stand out from the rest of the two million people applying to the same top-notch universities that you are. Grades don’t count as much, because thousands of students will have the same exceptional GPA and excellent SAT scores as you. The key is to have a one-of-a-kind message to send to the college. Why should they pick you over the others? You have to be the diamond in the rough, something different from everyone else. Start a helpful club, aid orphans, do something particularly unexpected, become a leader, snag an internship opportunity, do anything that’s so lavishly wonderful that renowned colleges will have to glance at you at least a single time. Once you have this concept, you will have to make sure that it makes you look unique and exceptional.
There is no question that getting into colleges will be harder and harder as time passes by. “I definitely think that getting into college will be worth all the time and effort one puts into achieving this goal,” says freshman David Lee.
High school students should be very aware of the sudden increase in competitive actions amongst their fellow peers. More and more students now are devoting their time to heavy academic work, more AP classes, more SAT classes, more SAT II classes, more of everything. This economic downturn also has students grasping for full-time scholarships if not, half-time scholarships, which isn’t assisting anyone thinking of admitting their application to a college anytime soon. This battle for supremacy greatly resembles the survival of the fittest, the fittest being the matchless students that are the crème de la crème, the students that all colleges want.
**more quotes to come later**
Application Frustration
By: Ashley Chi and Justin Park
With the bar set higher and higher each year for high school students in things such as the SAT, ACT, and AP tests, and demanding amounts of extracurricular activities, it’s no help to students that colleges are harder to get into each year. Factors this year such as the economic downturn adds to other factors, such as rising competition and higher tuitions, which go against prospective students. Additionally, there has been a reported increase in prospective students, which is expected to continue through to the end of this decade. Combine this factor with increased desire among parents and students to get into elite universities, and you’ve got yourself frustrations and disappointments.
According to a study done by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, applicants that were admitted among the 40 highly ranked public and private institutions fell ¨by an average of about 25 percent between 1986 and 2003.” Additionally, they also found that the chance of being admitted into a four-year institution fell nearly 9 percent from 1972 to 2004.
Other Ivy-League schools have also been affected. Out of 20,194 applicants to Stanford University, only a mere 2,412 students were accepted. This astounding acceptance rate of less than 12% sets the record for the smallest acceptance rate in Stanford’s history. What’s even more startling is that over 90% of the applicants were in the top 10% academically in their respective high schools and 80% had a grade point average of 4.0 or higher. These statistics show that brainpower is not enough anymore to gain appliance into the country’s greatest universities.
The factor that mainly contributed to these low acceptance rates was the economic downturn. Many parents and students may jump to the conclusion that state-funded colleges are the less expensive roads to secondary education. This may not be the case, because many state schools, such as the UC system, are receiving less money from the state because of state budget deficits. However, this may not be the case, as many popular public universities have less than a 50% acceptance rate.
Additionally, students and parents are getting more competitive over the years. More and more students and parents have started to rake up their money and use it at expensive SAT schools in a desperate hope that it would guarantee a spot in one of the better colleges. By and by, even elementary school students are starting to take after-school academic classes to be up and running before the race starts. However, it’s not all in the academics, either. Students are using every trick in the book to make themselves stand out from the others- achieving brilliantly high SAT scores and an outstanding GPA, trying out for different sports, and joining and pioneering a myriad of clubs. There is even an entire college industry devoted to help students gather the most impressive portfolio they could possibly muster. These services can cost up to $40,000, but amazingly, quite a few parents are willing to spend that much money in order to get their child into the college of their choice
The main thing to do, researchers say, is to make sure that you stand out from the rest of the two million people applying to the same top-notch universities that you are. Grades don’t count as much, because thousands of students will have the same exceptional GPA and excellent SAT scores as you. The key is to have a one-of-a-kind message to send to the college. Why should they pick you over the others? You have to be the diamond in the rough, something different from everyone else. Start a helpful club, aid orphans, do something particularly unexpected, become a leader, snag an internship opportunity, do anything that’s so lavishly wonderful that renowned colleges will have to glance at you at least a single time. Once you have this concept, you will have to make sure that it makes you look unique and exceptional.
There is no question that getting into colleges will be harder and harder as time passes by. “I definitely think that getting into college will be worth all the time and effort one puts into achieving this goal,” says freshman David Lee.
High school students should be very aware of the sudden increase in competitive actions amongst their fellow peers. More and more students now are devoting their time to heavy academic work, more AP classes, more SAT classes, more SAT II classes, more of everything. This economic downturn also has students grasping for full-time scholarships if not, half-time scholarships, which isn’t assisting anyone thinking of admitting their application to a college anytime soon. This battle for supremacy greatly resembles the survival of the fittest, the fittest being the matchless students that are the crème de la crème, the students that all colleges want.
**more quotes to come later**