Attempts by US school-leavers to maximise study options by applying to a multitude of universities are backfiring, reports Jon Marcus
Top universities in the US have experienced a surge in applications as the most gifted students hedge their bets by increasing the number of institutions they approach.
But the multiple-application trend may have backfired on college hopefuls.
With the huge increase in volume of applications, some of the most selective universities are accepting fewer applicants to combat the deluge.
The practical outcome is that the best universities are now accepting barely one in ten applicants, offering the longest odds in years.
"The average kid who used to apply to three schools is applying to five or six now," said Judy Hingle, director of professional development for the National Association of College Admissions Counsellors.
"That puts pressure on the whole system. It makes it more difficult to anticipate who is an admissible student and, with so many students who may have the exact same preparation and background, one's going to get in and another isn't."
University acceptances were mailed out at the beginning of April, and students are making their decisions now about where to enrol in the autumn.
The problem of an admissions bottleneck has been exacerbated by a "baby boomlet" that has produced more high-school graduates than normal in recent years. And, of those school-leavers, a higher proportion is applying to university than in the past.
"This has been a very frenetic time for university admissions departments,"
Ms Hingle said.
Last year, universities underestimated the proportion of students who would take up their admissions offers, which led to crowded campus accommodation and oversubscribed classes. Because of that, many schools have taken a more conservative approach this year.
Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Dartmouth and Brown universities and the University of Pennsylvania all registered record-low acceptance rates this year. Princeton accepted 10.2 per cent of applicants, down from 10.9 per cent last year; Yale accepted 8.6 per cent, and Harvard 9.3 per cent, slightly more than last year's record low of 9.2 per cent.
Universities are putting many more students on waiting lists than they have in the past. But not many of them will ultimately be admitted.