College Admissions in The United States - Overview

Overview

Millions of high school students apply to college each year. While the number of graduates from high school peaked at 3.3 million in 2008 and has been forecast to decline through 2015, the number of college-enrolled students is expected to increase through 2020 when there will be approximately 23 million students in college. About a quarter of high school seniors apply to seven or more schools on average, paying an average of $40 per application. Since fewer than half of all students entering college actually graduate within four years, and slightly over half will graduate from any college during their lifetimes, many colleges, particularly mid-level liberal arts colleges, are scrambling for students, and are trying to adjust their offerings to appeal to diverse groups of students.

College admissions marks an important rite of passage from high school to college. The process takes considerable time and involves multiple steps and deadlines and choices, including fees and essays and college visits and interviews. Students file separate applications to each school, although the Common Application expedites the process in many instances. Most undergraduate institutions admit students to the entire college and not to a particular department or major, unlike many European universities and American graduate schools, although some undergraduate programs such as architecture or engineering require a separate application.

New developments in college admissions include increased numbers of applications, more students applying by an early method, applications submitted by Internet-based methods including the Common Application, increased use of consultants and guidebooks and rankings, and increased use by colleges of waitlists. One estimate was that 80 percent of applications were submitted online in 2009. Educational funding has shifted during the past few decades from families to the students themselves via loans, although many of them are federally subsidized; as a result, many students graduate college with considerable debt, and future estimated indebtedness is increasingly becoming a matter of concern. The overall time span for higher education is lengthening, such that college is less likely to be the final educational destination and more likely to be a pathway to graduate school. Higher education, itself, is undergoing rapid technological change, with new online-based course options and even entire institutions built around the use of Internet-based learning such as the University of Phoenix. A report in The Economist in 2011 found considerable dysfunction at many American universities with research activity overemphasized and teaching underemphasized. While authors of the book Academically Adrift suggested that a third of American students show no "improvement in critical thinking or analytical reasoning after four years in college," there is general consensus that a college education is a worthwhile endeavor.