Here’s a quick overview of five institutions I saw in the Lone Star State:
Rice University: Students are not admitted by major (except for architecture and music), and there is no need to declare a major until the second semester sophomore year declaration deadline. Choose courses from 3 distribution groups (like clusters) that students must complete by senior year. House system (think Harry Potter) will be expanding from 11 to 13 residential colleges.
Texas Christian University: Ranked “Happiest Students” by Princeton Review. Beautiful campus, big sports culture. One out of every three students are in the Neely School of Business. Undecided students who really want business should apply to business first because it’s tough to transfer in. Lockheed Martin offers many internships and jobs to engineering students. Possible to double major across colleges. 1/3 of the curriculum is liberal arts-based to build strong critical thinking skills.
Southwestern University: Very selective, regionally respected, the oldest college in Texas (1840) is older than the state itself (1845). Only 28 miles north of Austin, 11th largest city in the US. Personal attention emphasized; 6 advisors for every 375 students. First year seminars are purely interdisciplinary (chocolate course taught by Bio teacher covers economics, psychology, marketing and culture). Exceptional Southwestern study abroad program in London; study away in NYC and DC. Great outdoor adventure opportunities!
Austin College: No adjunct professors. 97% faculty are tenured/tenured track. 90% applicants admitted to health sciences programs. New Master of Medical Science Physician programs is first year didactic; second year clinical rotation. Texas Instruments has made a 34 billion dollar investment in local infrastructure. Largest telescope in North Texas!
University of Texas at Austin: The state flagship now autoadmits the top 5% of Texas high school graduates. 90%of students must be from Texas legally. Under 10% OOS are admitted. Jester Residence Hall alone houses over 3,000 residents. New EA deadline is 10/15. Submit your housing application right after applying!
See the chart from The Common App Report March 2024 below. Notice the low growth of the highly-selective colleges. This means they are all wildcards for even the most qualified candidates.
How hard an individual student works means little, and every applicant is highly qualified. All that matters is that particular college’s institutional priorities. Notice the highest growth is at the least selective (and often less expensive) colleges.
This trend drives selectivity. The Universities of Tennessee and South Carolina now offer admission to the top 10% of students in their respective states, as the highly-selective UTAustin has always done. They will both be more selective for out of state students. The University of Georgia has gotten significantly more competitive in the last five years, so Auburn and Tennessee have followed. Winning sports teams also generate more applications.
Now that Boston College has become nearly as selective as Notre Dame, Holy Cross has a 16% acceptance rate. All are “unlikelies.” Villanova’s admit rate is in the low 20’s, and is still lower for the most competitive majors. Providence is no longer a ”likely” for many students, and the College of Charleston is sure to follow that trend as students look for alternatives to the University of South Carolina, which will see a big increase in apps because of their Women’s Basketball team win at March Madness. While UVA has become increasingly selective, especially for out of state students, James Madison’s apps have doubled.
We are losing our targets and likely colleges, as many students are looking for affordable options where they can be admitted.
Nothing significant has changed at any of these colleges in just a few years’ time. They are not fundamentally better than their peer schools that didn’t experience big increases in the number of applications or reductions in acceptance rates. They simply benefited from certain factors and from enrollment management. Holy Cross, the University of Tennessee, and the College of Charleston are fantastic colleges, but they are not better today than they were three years ago, despite the lower admit rate.
I want to help students and parents understand how much harder the current landscape of selective college admissions is than when their older children applied. They fear that not being admitted to colleges with low admit rates is somehow failing.
Getting denied from highly selective colleges is not failing. Failing in this process is not doing your homework and choosing the right colleges to apply to.
The college admissions landscape for selective colleges is simply very, very tough. For several years, admit rates have gone way down. I have classified colleges that admit 15% or less "unlikelies," but my number is too low (the Common App classifies "highly selectives" as under 25%); that number of colleges has grown from 62 in 2019 to 71 in 2024. 29 of those colleges/universities have admit rates under 10% and 42 have admit rates between 10-20%. Why focus on these colleges? Because as this category of colleges grows, it affects what happens with admit rates at all of the other colleges. That means many "likely" colleges have become "possibles."
A college is not better just because it is harder to get into. But the more selective a school is, the more desirable it becomes. I can point to numerous colleges that just in the last two or three years have cut their acceptance rate in half – and they are the exact same colleges they were a couple of years ago (they might even offer a worse experience because now they have a housing shortage due to increased demand!). People suddenly attach a value to it that has nothing to do with the actual college itself. Conversely, they may assume that if a college is an easier admit, then it must be less good, and that is simply untrue. DON'T LET YOURSELF GET SUCKED INTO THIS! I see kids every year apply to colleges that, even if were accepted, are not good fits for them.
Next week, some specifics.