We’re making progress in educating the public about the realities of college admissions. On the American Prospect Online, Kevin Carey of Education Sector analyzes “Admission Impossible?“:
As Ivy League universities report — once again — that admissions rates have fallen to record lows, newspapers rush to publish stories documenting the increasingly “frenzied” (variants: “frantic,” “brutal”) competition among students vying for a coveted slot in an elite school. The stock characters include the tearful student — dreams crushed under an avalanche of rejection letters — the angry parent, the frenzied guidance counselor, and the college admissions official or other expert who notes with grateful wonder, “If I had to apply to my alma mater today, I couldn’t get in.”
There’s just one problem: it’s not true. The declining odds of getting into an elite college are mostly a statistical mirage, caused by confusion between college applicants and college applications.
Carey’s points – right down to the italics on applicants – echo those I wrote about on April 11th in “Why Seth Godin and the Wall Street Journal are Wrong About College Admissions.” We agree on the following causes for the proliferation of seemingly-hopeless admissions stats:
- More applicants. Simply, more people are applying to college than in the past; this is due to a larger population and a more accessible education system that has a greater number of openings.
- More applications. Students are applying to a larger number of colleges; the geographic area in which students apply is becoming broader; more applications means a few more acceptances and many more rejections.
It really is that simple. The bottom line? Carey and I agree that despite the rotten admissions stats paraded by every media outlet possible, getting into college isn’t tougher than it used to be.
Hopefully readers in Houston won’t be too dismayed by what they read on Monday; apparently the Houston Chronicle didn’t get this memo.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Robert 04.25.07 at 6:09 am
There’s this tendency as well for the media to pick up on the “admission rates at record lows” meme — when it happens at a few select institutions like the Ivy Leagues — and then project it to all colleges and universities out there by saying something like “it’s harder than ever to get into college”. It almost doesn’t need to be said that the Ivies do NOT serve as a representative sample of all colleges! You’re right that getting into “college” — meaning, college in general — isn’t any harder. There are plenty of fine institutions out there and applicants just need to provide themselves with a wide variety of choices when it comes to applying. (If a kid applies only to Harvard, Cornell, and Penn and doesn’t get in, s/he doesn’t really have a basis for complaining about how hard it is to get into “college”.)
Seth Godin 04.25.07 at 7:47 am
Thanks Matthew, for reading. I don’t think we disagree, but I do think I could have been more clear. Here goes:
The number of slots available in high-prestige, expensive, branded schools has not dramatically expanded. At the same time, the number of people seduced by the promise of these schools has skyrocketed. More families want their kids to go to the Ivies.
Simple math says that’s not possible. So sure, it’s not hard to get into a college. But if you buy into the “if I don’t get into Harvard I’m doomed” myth, then you’ve got a tough row to hoe.