College admissions in the United States is the process of applying for undergraduate study at colleges or universities. For students entering college directly after high school, the process typically begins in eleventh grade, with most applications submitted during twelfth grade. Deadlines vary, with Early Decision or Early Action applications often due in October or November, and regular decision applications in December or January. Students at competitive high schools may start earlier, and adults or transfer students also apply to colleges in significant numbers.
Each year, millions of high school students apply to college. In 2018–19, there were approximately 3.68 million high school graduates, including 3.33 million from public schools and 0.35 million from private schools."Table 219.10. High school graduates, by sex and control of school; public high school averaged freshman graduation rate (AFGR); and total graduates as a ratio of 17-year-old population: Selected years, 1869-70 through 2028-29," in Digest of Education Statistics. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education. Archived from the original on December 17, 2024. The number of first-time freshmen entering college that fall was 2.90 million, including students at four-year public (1.29 million) and private (0.59 million) institutions, as well as two-year public (0.95 million) and private (0.05 million) colleges. First-time freshman enrollment is projected to rise to 2.96 million by 2028."Table 305.10. Total fall enrollment of first-time degree/certificate-seeking students in degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by attendance status, sex of student, and level and control of institution: 1960 through 2028" in Digest of Education Statistics. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education. Archived from the original on December 31, 2024.
Students can apply to multiple schools and file separate applications to each school. Recent developments such as electronic filing via the Common Application, now used by about 800 schools and handling 25 million applications, have facilitated an increase in the number of applications per student. Around 80 percent of applications were submitted online in 2009. About a quarter of applicants apply to seven or more schools, paying an average of $40 per application. Most undergraduate institutions admit students to the entire college as "undeclared" undergraduates and not to a particular department or major, unlike many European universities and American graduate schools, although some undergraduate programs may require a separate application at some universities. Admissions to two-year colleges or community colleges are simpler, often requiring only a high school transcript and in some cases, minimum test score.
Recent trends in college admissions include increased numbers of applications, increased interest by students in foreign countries in applying to American universities, more students applying by an early method, applications submitted by Internet-based methods including the Common Application and Coalition for College, increased use of consultants, guidebooks, and rankings, and increased use by colleges of waitlists. In the early 2000s, there was an increase in media attention focused on the fairness and equity in the college admission process. The increase of highly sophisticated software platforms, artificial intelligence and enrollment modeling that maximizes tuition revenue has challenged previously held assumptions about exactly how the applicant selection process works. These trends have made college admissions a very competitive process, and a stressful one for students, parents and college counselors alike, while colleges are competing for higher rankings, lower admission rates and higher yield rates to boost their prestige and desirability. Admission to U.S. colleges in the aggregate level has become more competitive, however, most colleges admit a majority of those who apply. The selectivity and extreme competition has been very focused in a handful of the most selective colleges. Participants
Students Applying to colleges can be stressful. The outcome of the admission process may affect a student's life and career trajectory considerably. Entrance into top colleges is increasingly competitive, and many students feel immense pressure during their high school years.Anthony Zurcher, July 25, 2014, BBC News, Ivy League miseducation, Accessed July 26, 2014.
Parents The college applications process can be stressful for parents of teenagers, according to journalist Andrew Ferguson, since it exposes "our vanities, our social ambitions and class insecurities, and most profoundly our love and hopes for our children".
High school counselors
Some high schools have one or more teachers experienced in offering counseling to college-bound students in their junior and senior years. Parents often meet with the school counselor during the process together with the student. Advisors recommend that students get to know their school counselor. The counselor usually works in conjunction with the guidance department which assists students in planning their high school academic path.
School counselors are in contact with colleges year after year and can be helpful in suggesting suitable colleges for a student. Mamlet and VanDeVelde suggest that it is improper for an admissions counselor to tamper with a student's "authentic self". According to their view, ideal counselors have experience with college admissions, meet regularly with college admissions officers, and belong to professional organizations. Counselors do not complete interviews, write essays, or arrange college visits. Most counselors have responsibility for helping many students and, as a result, it is difficult for them to provide individualized help to a particular student; one estimate was that the average ratio for all high schools of students to counselors was 460 to 1. Only about a quarter of public high schools have a counselor devoted to college counseling issues full-time, while almost three-quarters of private schools have a dedicated college counselor. Private school counselors tend to have substantially more contact with university admissions staff than public school counselors.
Consultants Fee-based consultants, some available entirely online, can be hired to help a student gain admission, although there are some free programs to help underprivileged youth learn how to fill out applications, write essays, get ready for tests, and work on interviews. Generally, when hiring a college admissions consultant, parents and students try to understand the consultant's philosophy, learn what services are provided, and whether any help will be offered regarding advice about financial aid or scholarships. Consultants can help a student select schools to apply to, counsel them on test taking strategies, review scores, help with essay preparation (but not writing), review applications, conduct mock interviews, provide logistical planning, and collaborate with others such as athletic coaches. Consultants try to keep a low profile; however, one admissions dean explained that she can "sniff out when there has been some adult involved in the process", and admissions personnel may detect varying quality regarding writing samples when one part of an application is polished, while other parts are less polished.quoting Jennifer Delahunty, dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Kenyon College. Assistance by consultants or other adults can go to extremes, particularly with hard-to-check variables such as the college essays; according to one view, plagiarism on admissions essays has been a "serious problem", particularly on applications to private universities and colleges. Another risk in hiring a consultant is over-packaging: the applicant appears so smooth and perfect that admissions officers suspect the person is not real but a marketing creation.
College admissions staff
A typical admission staff at a college includes a dean or vice president for admission or enrollment management, middle-level managers or assistant directors, admission officers, and administrative support staff. The chief enrollment management officer is sometimes the highest-paid position in the department, earning $121,000 on average in 2010, while admissions officers average only $35,000, according to one estimate. Admissions officers tend to be in the 30-to-40 age demographic. They are chosen for their experience in admissions, aptitude for statistics and data analysis, experience in administration and marketing and public relations. They serve dual roles as counselors and recruiters, and do not see themselves as marketers or salespeople, according to one view. They are evaluated on how well they "represent their college, manage their office, recruit staff members, and work with other administrators". Michele Hernandez suggested there were basically two types of officers: a first group of personable, sharp, people-oriented go-getter types who were often recent college grads; a second group was somewhat out-of-touch "lifers" who often did not graduate from a highly selective college. Officers are generally paid an annual salary, although there have been reports of some recruiters paid on the basis of how many students they bring to a college, such as recruiters working abroad to recruit foreign students to U.S. universities.
Many colleges and universities work hard to market themselves, trying to attract the best students and maintain a reputation for academic quality. Colleges spent an average of $585 to recruit each applicant in 2010. There are efforts to make increased use of social media sites such as Facebook to promote their colleges. Marketing brochures and other promotional mailings often arrive daily in the hope of persuading high school students to apply to a college. According to Joanne Levy-Prewitt, colleges send "view books" not because they intend to admit them, but "because they want multitudes of students to apply" to improve the college's selectivity and to make sure that they have as many well-qualified applicants as possible from whom to choose the strongest class. Colleges get access to names and addresses after students give permission to them after taking the PSAT or SAT exams.
Information sources U.S. News & World Report compiles a directory of colleges and publishes rankings of them, although the rankings are controversial. Other sources rank colleges according to various measures, sell guidebooks, and use their rankings as an entry into consulting services. College Board launched a website called BigFuture in 2012 with tools to assist in the admissions process.
Planning International students may need to take tests showing English-language proficiency such as the TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE Academic. The twelfth grade is when applications are submitted.
Selection of colleges
Rankings
There are many college and university rankings, including those by U.S. News & World Report, Business Insider, Money, Washington Monthly, and Forbes.
Rankings have been the subject of much criticism. Since much of the data is provided by colleges themselves, schools can manipulate the rankings to enhance prestige, such as Claremont McKenna misreporting average SAT statistics, and Emory University misreporting student data for "more than a decade", as well as reports of false data from the United States Naval Academy and Baylor University. There is hypocrisy surrounding rankings: some colleges pretend to loathe the guidebooks that rank them, yet if they get a good write-up, they "wave it around like a bride's garter belt".