Have applications to top colleges increased much?

With colleges going test optional for the classes of 2025 and 2026, applications to the 61 highly selective colleges with acceptance rates of 25% or less exploded to historical highs far surpassing pre-Covid19 application numbers. Across all 61 colleges, applications received stood at all time highs for the the class of 2026.

The most significant increases in applications were for the class of 2025. Colgate University topped everyone else with a 104% jump in applications for the class of 2025 (freshman class of 2021/2022) followed by MIT which experienced a substantial increase of 66% in applications for the class of 2025. Williams College also experienced a substantial 42.2% increase in applications received for the class of 2025.

The increases in applications for the class of 2025 are substantially magnified in the context of the reductions in applications received the prior year for the class of 2024.

The applications for the class of 2024 were submitted just before the onset of the Covid19 pandemic and the reductions in applications were likely driven by factors unrelated to the pandemic. For that year, 40 of the 61 colleges experienced declines in applications ranging between 2% and 17.5%, while the remaining 20 colleges experienced almost no change in the number of applications received.

This compares to the class of 2023 where only 12 of the 61 colleges experienced decreases in applications from the prior year. The majority of top colleges that year experienced small increases in applications compared to the class of 2022. Only Rice University and Hamilton College bucked the trend with bigger increases of 29.5% and 33.6% respectively in applications for the class of 2023. Both Rice and Hamilton subsequently gave up some of the gains in applications for the class of 2024 which saw declines in applications.

The table below sets out application data for the 61 highly selective colleges over a 5 year period from 2018 to 2022 and calculates the year on year percentage change over that period.

Table of Annual Changes in Applications 2018 to 2022

Note: Application data is compiled from the Common Data Sets and data published on the college website or affiliated publications

The rate of increase in applications slowed down substantially for the class of 2026, although some colleges continued with double digit growth in applications topped again by Colgate University, followed by Northeastern University and Williams College, all 3 of which registered healthy increases of about 20%. A few colleges registered small declines in applications compared to the class of 2025.

So what does this all mean?

It looks like after the initial euphoria for the class of 2025, we may have reached a limit to the number of applicants who will try their luck at admission to a highly selective college without submitting a test score. In the absence of change, the number of applications is likely to plateau or even decline as reality sinks in for many applicants that it is still as hard as ever to gain admission to an elite college, with or without test scores.

The raison d’etre for going test optional in 2021/2022 for the class of 2025 applications has expired. The testing centers now open as normal for SAT and ACT test candidates. Due to the pandemic, test centers closed for much of 2020 in many parts of the country preventing the class of 2025 from taking either the SAT or the ACT, thus prompting large numbers of colleges, selective or not, to suspend the requirement for test scores.

The suspension of the requirement for test scores has been continued by most colleges through to the class of 2027 whose applications are due between November 2022 and January 2023.

MIT has already announced that they will reinstate the requirement for applicants to submit test scores. Whether the other colleges will follow in MIT’s track remains to be seen. The STEM focused colleges are the most likely to reinstate the requirement for test scores since these test scores are one of the best objective measures of whether an applicant can perform in STEM subjects at the college level. After all, competency in mathematics and the sciences is essential to success at these STEM focused colleges. Science and math departments within many of the selective colleges may also reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement since competency in these subjects is critical to success for them.

Should more colleges follow in MIT’s tracks and reinstate the requirement for test scores, we may see a drop in number of applications to these highly selective colleges in the future. While a reduction in applications may be good for the sanity of all applicants, will colleges have incentive to rationalize the process after wittingly or unwittingly invited a stampede of applications by going test optional?

Side Note: Colleges generate a substantial amount of revenue through application fees. For example, when Colgate University’s applications doubled for the class of 2025, it also doubled its application fee revenues from about $640,000 to $1,315,000, and increased it again to $1,575,000 for the class of 2026. Both Harvard and Columbia generated an estimated $4,500,000 each in application fees for the class of 2026, while Northeastern University generated an estimated $6,800,000 in application fees for the class of 2026. Despite having to allocate more resources to handle the increased numbers of applications, it is likely that the colleges still generated surpluses in the end.

---

Admitted students possess the qualities top colleges value!

Find out with real examples what these qualities are to get you admitted to the Ivy League and top colleges.

Get the FREE Guide Now

---