The pandemic has disrupted and upended countless industries. Scores of state-of-the-art corporate developments in major cities across the nation sit empty. Schools everywhere have adapted to remote learning. As the vaccines bring new hope to a country that’s been on pause for more than a year, many Americans might be beginning to return to some semblance of normalcy. But as some corporate employees head back into the office for the first time and students head into summer with hopes that they can pass hard-copy notes to their friends in the fall, college hopefuls might be entering into a new post-pandemic world of college applications entirely. Applications for universities have been at an all-time high for the past decade or so. But this last admissions cycle truly marked a change in competition. And perhaps for good.
The Numbers
The most competitive schools in the nation saw massive increases across the board in applications, both in the early and regular decision categories. Schools like Brown saw a 27% increase in total applications for the class of 2025 over c/o 2024 applications. UPenn reported a 23% increase in early applications alone. The below graphs show the differences between applicant pools for the classes of 2024 and 2025 in the Ivy League schools for which data was available.
*Cornell’s data does not differentiate between early and regular applicants for the class of 2025
*Cornell’s data does not differentiate between early and regular applicants for the class of 2025
Princeton temporarily suspended its early action program this cycle in light of the pandemic, but it also saw a 15% increase in applications. Harvard saw a 41% increase in applications. Yale saw a more than 30% increase.
Columbia might offer the most pronounced example of increases in applications this year. While full data distinguishing between early and regular decision applicants was not available for Columbia, the New York institution also saw an overall increase—60,548 students applied for the class of 2025 compared to 40,084 for the year prior: a whopping 51% increase year-over-year and an all-time high.
A Temporary Blip or a Brave New World?
But what’s driving the increase and is it just a pandemic-thing? According to the New York Times, 1,700 schools across the country dropped standardized testing requirements in the wake of the pandemic. Test scores (along with grades) have long been the most important factor in college applications. We often tell our students that if you don’t have solid test scores, you can forget about the Ivy League, no matter how awesome your essays are and how impressive your extra-curriculars might be. The test-optional landscape has provided kids who felt they weren’t great test-takers or who didn’t do well on practice exams the sense that they might have a shot at the nation’s most prestigious schools, so why not apply? In other words, the pandemic has made the applicant pools in the Ivy League absolutely explode.
The result has led to astronomically high applications at all of the nation’s top universities. The Times article also reported that, per Common App data, the nation’s most-selective four-year institutions—so not just the Ivy League, but also notable public and private schools—saw a 17% increase in applications this last year.
It’s worth noting that community colleges conversely saw a massive decline-more than 20 percent—in 2020 applicants., likely due to factors related to income. High schoolers from lower-income backgrounds who typically comprise community college classes may have had to take jobs as a result of the pandemic and may have also had a harder time accessing the internet at a time in which everything (including all things related to college applications) must be done remotely. That said, hyper-competitive schools, including Ivies, also saw increases in applications among students from underrepresented backgrounds, according to the Times.
But as students set their sights on new dreams that previously seemed unattainable, smaller schools struggled to attract applicants at all, raising the question of how their bottom lines (dependent upon competitive acceptance rates and attendance-based funding in the case of public schools) will forever suffer.
The question remains as to whether or not this trend will be permanent. While some schools are opting to remain test-optional forever already, others will surely make the move in the coming years. Regardless of what happens with standardized testing, one thing is certain: current high schoolers and rising high schoolers vying for spots at the nation’s most elite schools will face unprecedented levels of competition for years to come.
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