The process of college applications has undergone immense change within the past few years stemming from effects of COVID-19. It may seem surprising that a virus that was discovered over five years ago continues to have an effect on our daily lives, but colleges are still readjusting. COVID-19 led to educational set-backs with online schooling and the sudden halt of many things such as SATs and numerous extracurriculars. Colleges are just now starting to recover and turn back to the way things were before the pandemic just in time for the Class of 2025’s application season. Now students and parents are beginning to wonder what other changes are in store.
One of the most well known changes stemming from COVID was regarding standardized testing such as the SAT and ACT which many colleges have not required for a few years now. UCs, state schools, and even Ivy Leagues have been test optional or test “blind” for a number of years. The renewal of required testing for some schools is definitely the biggest change coming this year that students need to be aware of to be successful.
Harvard University recently announced the reinstatement of the SAT/ACT testing requirements for this upcoming application season. They previously planned to extend the test-optional policy until next year, but have decided to break that commitment. Other institutions such as Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown have also decided to make testing mandatory due to the theory that standardized tests predict academic success. Many students may not have been planning to take the SAT or ACT, and should make new efforts to research each school’s requirements as many are reverting to the previous benchmarks.
The ending of the test-optional culture within colleges is also due to a sense of fairness. Schools decided that without an SAT or ACT score, many students were indistinguishable and too similar to make a well-calculated choice. They needed that extra numerical factor to decide if applicants could handle the rigor of their school.
With the current application season just wrapping up, we have seen immense competition between applicants. This year’s schools reported record high application numbers with schools like Northeastern, Yale, and Virginia Tech receiving their largest applicant pools ever. This means 2024 brought lower admission rates at most colleges since they are trying to manage their student body count. This may also be why it seemed as if many people were receiving countless rejections.
Application inflation started during the pandemic and has become normal in competitive colleges and majors. The rate of students applying to over ten schools increased about 10% in the last ten years. Many more high school students are applying to similar colleges, and hope to attend them, meaning schools receive more applicants than they can accept causing a lower acceptance rate per number of applications.
This year also brought about a lot of positive changes regarding applications. Colleges are starting to see recovery as enrollments rise in comparison to their fall during the COVID pandemic. Undergraduate enrollments increased significantly, returning to a number more closely aligned to pre-pandemic times. Many sources infer that we will see a full recovery to normalcy in college applications, and this year’s application season will be more normal than than those of the past few years.
