Throughout the Ivy League, possibly emboldened by test-optional admissions policies being one less barrier to entry, Fall 2021 applicants increased by double digits, adding subjectivity to the admission evaluation process and dropping admit rates year over year, some to record lows at Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania.
Ivy League admit rates for the Classes of 2025:
- Harvard, 3.4%
- Columbia, 3.7%
- Yale, 4.6%
- Brown, 5.4%
- University of Pennsylvania, 5.7%
- Dartmouth, 6.2%
- Cornell didn’t report total applicants to calculate admit rate
- Princeton, 4%, a continuous dropping rate now for the past ten years
From Business Insider, April 10, 2021
Adding complexity, Class of 2024 students who deferred admissions to Fall 2021 needed to be accommodated for Fall 2021, so fewer students were admitted at Brown, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Princeton and Columbia. Only Yale and Harvard admitted a similar number of students year over year, despite deferred Class of 2024 enrollments.
Once again, highly qualified students weren’t admitted to the Ivy Leagues, leaving many applicants confused, often with bruised egos. Yet, the elitist myth of highly selective universities is intact, ensuring legions of applicants will once again volunteer themselves for sacrifice, competing to reach the rarified air of the top during the fall Fall 2022 application cycle, believing they’re one of the chosen, the elite.
Thus, the race to be elite is as alive and well as ever, where the overwhelming odds of rejection defy all logic as college applicants by the thousands still demand entry every year, all with the bravado believing that spoils and riches are there’s to be had, a modern day gold rush if you will.
In reality, however, seeking admissions to the most elite colleges requires discrimination on the part of the applicant, tempered by the humility born from a rigorous contemplation in search of their inherent aptitude. Otherwise, expending the effort to draft numerous complex, interlocking application essays, managing subsequent emotion and stress, potentially diluting the efforts to apply to universities more aligned with the individual student, an opportunity cost borne by the applicant, may only add regret to the potential disappointment of being amongst the 9.7 out of 10 applicants denied admissions.
For more information about how to navigate the complex college admissions process as means for a young person to discover their inherent aptitude and define their life’s purpose, contact the educational experts at Creative Marbles Consultancy
