Every student remembers the arduous and confusing college application process. Endless essays, SAT scores, and teacher recommendations plague applicants for months, all so that his or her fate can be decided by an admissions representative armed with only the most basic of information.
Unfortunately for kids graduating from high school in the next few years, getting into college is only going to get harder. Though the admissions office, still in the grueling process of data entry that follows the Jan. 1 deadline for applications, has yet to report the total number of applications received, John Mahoney, director of undergraduate admissions, says that the figure is close to 29,000.
This number shows an eight percent increase in applications from last year, when a record breaking 26,500 students fought for only 2,250 places in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Carroll School of Management, the Lynch School of Education, and the Connell School of Nursing.
The 26,000 applications submitted in 2006 showed a 12 percent increase from the previous year's 23,823. Even though the Boston College application process has always been stringent, the stakes are steadily increasing.
In past years, a student who took Advanced Placement and honors classes and partook in a few extracurricular activities had a reasonable chance of acceptance.
Now, it seems that only top grades and test scores make the cut. Applicants are expected to rank comfortably in the top 10 percent of their classes and score within the 1900 to 2100 range on the SAT. Less tangible requirements include an intellectual curiosity, hunger for knowledge, and scholarly potential. Commitment to leadership, service, and references from teachers and parents are also weighted heavily in the process.
The University, with its high ranking athletic program, traditional campus, and convenient proximity to Boston, is a very attractive choice for prospective college students.
This phenomenon, however, is not one that is unique to BC. Schools across the country have seen a tremendous hike in application rates in recent years, a trend that is predicted to continue through 2009.
There are many factors that are contributing to this spike in applications, one of the most important being the increase in the college continuation rate.
When the college continuation rate, or the number of high school seniors enrolled in an institute of secondary education, increases, the number of students applying for college inherently increases, as well. The more students that apply, the more selective admissions counselors have to be.
Increased applications can also be accredited to the fact that there are just more people in general.
"The number of 18-year-olds … high school seniors … in this country has been increasing steadily for some time," said Mahoney.
This leaves the admissions office with a dilemma: When more qualified people are applying than the school can accept, how do they decide who gets in? The only way to make this decision is to raise its standards.
This leads to what Mahoney has pegged as the trickle effect. "There are a lot more students out there now," said Mahoney. "Schools at the highest level of selectivity are becoming exceptionally difficult to get into."
The pool of people applying for admittance to the most selective schools is getting larger and larger. Applicants, realizing that they have only a very small chance at getting into these selective institutions, apply to more universities, including lower-level schools that they may not have considered in the past.
This is what Mahoney calls the multiple application phenomena, and it feeds into the institution's need to become more exclusive. The application process thus becomes a vicious cycle that won't be broken until the number of applicants declines.
Students applying for early action, a program that underwent reform earlier this year, face even more unforgiving standards. Because admissions can fill only 30 percent of the incoming freshmen class with people from the early applicant pool, admissions counselors have to choose prospective students even more meticulously.
Despite this fact, the number of students applying via early action has seen marked increases. In recent years, such increases have also been seen in the number of students applying to CSON and CSOM.
Statistics speak the truth - and standards continue to rise as BC's incoming classes get more and more talented.
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