Universities have become more selective and out of reach over the years. Acceptance rates for many universities, and all Ivy league colleges, have dropped into the single digits. Schools such as Harvard and Colombia have the lowest, dropping to under 4% acceptance. Public universities such as UCLA and other University of California schools have also become more strenuous to reach with UCLA having as low as 9% acceptance rate. The drop is caused by many more applicants than past years. Without expansion of the school, the class size remains constant while creating a larger demand and a dramatic drop in acceptance rates.
The increased competition to fight for the limited spots in universities has caused a spike in the expectations needed to get accepted to higher demand universities. GPA, extracurriculars, letters of recommendation, essays, leadership and personality are all factors that go into a college application. The pressure to finish all the requirements and achieve all the necessities to submit a college application or many while being in school is a heavy weight on a senior in high school, and on top of that, another weight of competition is added. Graham Kantor ‘27 said, “It kind of sucks for people who still do work really hard for their grades or maybe don’t have time to have impressive extracurricular activities and I think it can also have to do with bias or favor in certain groups.”
The competition has raised the standard for students to compete with others to have their GPA and overall application stand out. Extra years of all subjects especially math, English and science have been so popularized to stand out, it blends in and has become the norm creating unrealistic goals and expectations for teenagers. Specifically, Cal Poly expects a “rigorous curriculum”, an emphasis on “extracurricular/work experiences” and a heavy recommendation for a fifth year of English. Is five years of English realistic in four years of high school? This causes a student to have to take an additional course through dual enrollment, apply for summer school or take double English through a high school year. These competitive expectations raise the bar each year for students and expect more and more.
Aubrey Lobreau ‘27 said, “From my understanding and perspective many universities, especially Cal Poly SLO, think it’s the norm to have five years of English and five years of math. While this could be deemed as unrealistic, I think VHS offers many ways for students to achieve this goal. Getting into college in this day and age is highly competitive, especially with many majors being impacted making it even harder to be accepted. I think it’s important to keep pushing towards our goals and not feel diminished despite unnerving statistics.”
Students, like adults, need a work life balance or a school life balance and the competition created by universities setting unrealistic expectations is applying great pressure on students to outperform each other. In contrast, it also makes getting into a university more special due to the difficulty. “It makes getting into the school a way more prestigious accomplishment when a student gets in,” said Kantor.
