Surprising Trend In College Acceptance Rates

I've had professors state that "everyone" goes to college now because it's "so affordable," and others claim that enrollment has never been lower. With the introduction of the Excelsior scholarship in New York State, as well as other financial aid and academic assistance programs available at universities nowadays, we can assume that becoming a student is easier than ever--right?

As it turns out, this isn't quite the case. In a study conducted by BusinessStudent.com, schools were analyzed according to how many students they accepted back in 2006, and how many students were admitted in 2018. Of the 51 schools that provided information, 49 were significantly more difficult to get into. The more prestigious the school, the harder it was to go there. University of Chicago had the biggest decrease at 81.1%, and at the bottom was Carnegie Mellon with a 35.3% decrease.

Being a senior in high school is already enough pressure without having to worry about all the extra transcript-padding that must be necessary to get into these top schools now. In light of this new information, I feel very fortunate to be in the home stretch of my college career.