- Early admissions decisions for the Ivy League class of 2022 were announced in December.
- The acceptance rate declined another year in a row.
- It's harder than ever to get into elite colleges, according to experts.
It was the hardest year on record to get into elite colleges — admissions experts explain why
The acceptance rate drops nearly every year at elite schools like Harvard and Stanford, and admissions directors say it's harder than ever to get in.
Former Ivy League admissions directors say it's harder than ever to get in.
"Admissions have gotten more and more competitive in the past decade," Angela Dunnham, a college admissions counselor at InGenius Prep and former assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth College, told Business Insider via email. "In addition to the sheer number of applicants applying, the expectations for candidates have increased."
The steady uptick of college applicants, especially at elite schools, is stark, driven in part by the emergence of Common App, which allows students to apply to many schools at once.
Take, for example, an article in the Harvard Crimson about the acceptance rate for the class of 2000. "The class was chosen among a pool of 18,190 applicants, making Harvard's admission rate a paltry 10.9 percent — the lowest in College history," The Crimson wrote.
Twenty years later, the authors of that story are likely to be aghast that the acceptance rate has spiraled ever lower. With more than double the applicants, about 95% of students who applied to Harvard were rejected.
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