Every year all around the world, senior year rolls around for high schoolers, and it’s time to start college prepping. Seniors are left with a timer to apply to colleges, write essays, and do everything they need to do before specific deadlines for colleges. And every year comes the acceptances, waitlists, and rejections, leaving high schoolers with either a positive or negative way out of high school and onto college life.
As these decisions have started to roll around, there have been so many waves of rejections and wait listings, leaving a lot of seniors with so many questions. Questions like “Were my stats too minimal?,” “Was my GPA too low?,” and so much more. Personally, my close friends and I also have wondered about all these admission responses we’ve been receiving since. Wondering what made my college application not strong enough, what specific criteria did I miss? College decisions this year have been so intense, which makes people wonder who the heck applied this year?
The Common App, where many people apply to colleges, mostly for out of state and private colleges, indicated that the applicant levels rose 7%, meaning more seniors of the class of 2025 applied for college than the class of 2024 did. The Common App is an online platform that simplifies the college application process by allowing students to apply to multiple member colleges and universities using a single application. This I’d say is probably one of the big factors to why colleges were seen as more competitive this year than last year, possibly making the acceptance rate lower in some cases for next year applicants.
Focusing first towards our school, the Costa Mesa High School profile for the class of 2024 showed that 20-25% of the graduating class applied to a 4-year university, while the remaining percent applied to community college, and 2-3% went straight to the workforce/other. It was said that in the graduating class, many students have been accepted to over 160 different colleges and universities. Now, we don’t know for sure if the class of 2025 will have the same percentages, but we can for sure infer more students most likely applied somewhere. Many students here at Costa Mesa have been receiving emails back from all the colleges they have applied to, some acceptances, some waitlists, and then the rejections.
With all the questions and pondering of who applied this year and with what skill set they initiated into their applications and their qualities, I made a Google form for the class of 2025 to ask for their opinions of college applications the past year and their thoughts of it. I chose to also provide other additional questions that potentially could have played a role in their college application, such as what/how many extracurricular activities they were involved in within the school, outside the school etc. I was able to gather minimal but influential information within the form. I started with the simple questions of “What's your GPA?” or “Have you been in a school club” or “Have you done community service throughout high school?” Just with those three questions, I was able to gather that those with a 3.5 or higher GPA tended to both be in a school club and also have done community service, rather than others with lower than a 3.5 who tended to simply have done one or the other.
Here’s a visual of the GPA amounts I was able to collect:
Furthermore, I noticed that about 71% of the seniors who answered the form will be attending Community College, 59% will be attending in state and 22% will be attending out of state.
Those who are attending community college said they applied to Orange Coast College, Santa Ana College, Irvine Valley College, Golden West College etc., all predominantly in the Orange County area.
For In state, there were multiple Cal States and UC’s, along with some privates like Chapman, California Baptist, and USC.
The list for out of state was abundant, but a few universities were located in Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Florida, and much more.
Overall, it was shown that seniors applied to more Cal States rather than UC’s. That is a great big key factor since Cal States generally only look at your transcripts, while UC’s give you a way larger opportunity to express yourself outside a printed grade book and allow you to talk about your achievements, extracurriculars, awards, etc. Here’s a glimpse of how many seniors applied to Cal State’s and/or UC’s:
With all the data I received within the survey, it came to the conclusion that about 70% of the seniors at CMHS agreed the class of 2025 was one of the most competitive classes yet:
There are many big factors that are related to why college admissions this year were more competitive than the past years. For instance, there was a spike in the birth rate in 2006 and 2007, and in 2006 it was recorded it was the biggest birth rate in almost four decades. As we know, there are many people who were born in 2006 that are in the class of 2025 rather than 2024. The mixture of both years definitely is a big factor towards the college admissions this year.
Another big factor as to why college admissions have been so competitive is that in the class of 2025 many students chose to enter their test scores into their applications when it's optional for most colleges. Many colleges are now starting to reevaluate their optional test score inputs and making it become mandatory for applicants. While the UC system does still have it optional, there has been a staggering 9% increase this year of applicants who have selected to report their test scores than last year, which was 4%. This is one of the most important factors in a student's application because it shows how well a student succeeds in specific criteria.
Overall, as I’ve researched on and on about one of the most intriguing topics I have come across this year, it's very significant to understand and go into depth on how competitive it was this year for the class of 2025. The college decisions brought people many tears of joy and sadness! One of the most heard phrases I’ve heard lately is, “A college decision doesn’t define you,” which is one of the most truthful things you can hear now as a senior who’s about to graduate. Whether one is going straight to a four year or community college, your path comes into place as you grow, one step at a time. While it was stressful for many seniors this year, I know many are satisfied to know their journey ahead as they graduate!
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