The Realities of College Acceptance Dropping Rates

The Harvard Crimson reported yesterday that Harvard College accepted a record low 7.1 of all applicants for its Class of 2012. That’s 1,948 out of 27,462 applications, many of whom likely exhibited flawless applications and did everything expected of them, but somehow still falling south of the cut.

To the 1,948 that hit the jackpot: good for you. To the other 25,514, remember how much of a crapshoot this admissions nonsense has become.

You waded through four years of high school earning perfect grades and board scores. You were the president of your senior class, captain and quarterback of your football team, editor-in-chief of your school newspaper. You did everything right. And now, you sit back, preparing that valedictory speech. as one of the 25,514 thinking… somewhere along the line, “could I have done something more?”

The answer is no. The 2012 class represents the waning end of a boom period while the most selective colleges are competing in the midst of financial aid arms wars (that is, if your family’s annual net earnings fall under a certain dollar amount, you go to school for free). More schools have made the admissions process that much more impersonal, resorting to the common application that allows one standard form to be sent off to seemingly infinite schools with the tick of a box and a $60 check. All of these factors contribute to ridiculously spiked applicant pools.

At the same time, schools like Harvard take risks. They aim for the best and the brightest, but know deep down that virtually any one of the other 25,514 that didn’t make the cut could likely perform just as well as the 1,948 that did. That’s the game that kids and parents alike are waking up to this week. It doesn’t mean they’re failures now or destined to fail later in life. It just means that – in the midst of appeasing wealthy legacies and athletic coaches – a school like Harvard still needs to somehow piece together a class of students each fall.

I once read that after filibustering debates, admissions officers at selective institutions choose applicants blindly. When it becomes impossible to weed through what turns into a mostly homogeneous bunch, names are spread about the floor and those picked up at random make the cut while the others can only pray for the waitlist. Sadly, it’s maybe impossible to think of a fairer system.

Congratulations to the 1,948 that won this year’s Cambridge lottery, and congratulations to the 25,514 that will thrive wherever the end up in this fall.