High school students are applying to colleges in record numbers amid confusion over campus anti-Semitism, changing testing policies and the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling.
Before the pandemic, Christopher Lim’s average client applied to 12 schools. This college admissions consultant says this application cycle has resulted in 90% of his students applying to more than 20 of his schools.
“This is an unprecedented number,” he said.
“At some level, it’s becoming a lottery, where kids just decide to cover all their bases. They’re just applying to as many schools as possible,” said Command Education CEO Mr Lim told the Post.
Lim advised that one student applied to more than 30 schools and paid nearly $100 in application fees to each school.
“Families are aware of how competitive this process has become and are trying to maximize their chances,” Mr Lim said.
He added that customers who previously focused solely on the Ivy League are now focusing on so-called “Ivy Plus” schools, such as Yale, Harvard, Brown, etc.
Lim said New York University, Duke University, Emory University and Washington University in St. Louis are particularly popular this year.
“Previously, we would have discouraged students from applying to 20 schools because they would be spreading themselves too thin and sacrificing the quality of their applications for quantity.” says Mr Lim. “But in today’s application cycle, I actually agree with this strategy to some extent.”
As applications surge, non-Ivy League schools are becoming highly selective.
New York University, for example, has lowered its acceptance rate from 35% a decade ago to an astonishing 8% today. Meanwhile, Duke University cut its admissions rate by nearly half, from 12% in 2017 to 7% last year.
“These types of schools are currently difficult to get into and have almost the same kind of prestige as the Ivies,” Lim said. “Getting into Duke is just as difficult as getting into Harvard.”
He has witnessed some students reject Ivy League admissions and attend Ivy Plus schools instead.
One student client, who had just been accepted to Harvard University through early action, asked Lim for advice on applying to Duke University during the regular application cycle.
“Previously, if you could get into Harvard early, you would have completed all your university applications,” Lim explained.
The student cited concerns about anti-Semitism on campus as a motivation for applying elsewhere. Lim said many of his Jewish clients avoid schools such as Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University due to similar concerns.
Harvard University’s early applications fell by a shocking 17% following former president Claudine Gay’s controversial testimony on Capitol Hill in October 2023 about anti-Semitism on campus.
He says foreign applicants are clamoring for the slots.
“International students are becoming more eager to apply to Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania because anti-Semitism is scary, but they may not be that worried about it,” Lim said.
Other recent events in the college admissions industry, including the Supreme Court striking down affirmative action and schools reinstating standardized testing requirements, have also made this application cycle particularly disruptive.
Several elite schools, including Dartmouth College and Yale University, recently reinstated standardized testing requirements after making tests optional since the pandemic, leaving students in disarray.
Lim said one of his clients was planning to apply to Yale during this year’s early application cycle, but did not take the SAT. Now, in a panic, he is scrambling to find a prep school that doesn’t require scores.
“It’s very confusing because probably next week another Ivy or Stanford or any other school will start asking for test scores again,” Lim said. “There’s a lot more stress in this cycle, and testing updates aren’t helping at all.”
The Supreme Court’s June ruling overturning affirmative action in college admissions also meant that universities, among other things, reportedly novel Tactics to avoid court decisions without breaking the law.
“After the ruling, there has been a lot of confusion, especially among Asian American students,” Lim reported. “They don’t know how it’s going to play out and impact their admissions prospects, and frankly, neither do we until this admissions cycle is over.”
He said his clients are under unprecedented stress. Applications are thin, and it remains unclear how changes in the world of admissions will affect clients.
“At the end of the day, the university is enjoying how much disruption there is,” Lim said. “They want to avoid confusion because if people want to be able to get in, schools will have more applicants and lower acceptance rates.”
“Chaos is part of the appeal. Being mysterious and opaque is how they maintain their name and reputation.”
