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Early admissions decisions for the Ivy League class of 2022 were announced in December.
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The acceptance rate declined another year in a row.
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It's harder than ever to get into elite colleges, according to experts.
It was the hardest year on record for students to gain an acceptance into the Ivy League.
Both the early admissions acceptance rates for the class of 2022 — released in December — and the regular decision rates for the class of 2021 — released in March — saw declining rates.
But it's not as shocking a fact as one might think. The acceptance rate drops nearly every admissions cycle at elite schools. Take Harvard and Stanford, for example. For the class of 2001 (meaning students were accepted in 1997) the admission rate at Stanford was 15.5%, and the rate at Harvard was 12.3%. For the class of 2021, Stanford posted a 4.7% acceptance rate and Harvard a 5.2% acceptance rate.
Former Ivy League admissions directors say it's harder than ever to get in.
"Admissions have gotten more and more competitive in the past decade," Angela Dunnham, a college admissions counselor at InGenius Prep and former assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth College, told Business Insider via email. "In addition to the sheer number of applicants applying, the expectations for candidates have increased."
The steady uptick of college applicants, especially at elite schools, is stark, driven in part by the emergence of Common App, which allows students to apply to many schools at once.
Take, for example, an article in the Harvard Crimson about the acceptance rate for the class of 2000. "The class was chosen among a pool of 18,190 applicants, making Harvard's admission rate a paltry 10.9 percent — the lowest in College history," The Crimson wrote.
Twenty years later, the authors of that story are likely to be aghast that the acceptance rate has spiraled ever lower. With more than double the applicants, about 95% of students who applied to Harvard were rejected.
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In addition to the sheer number of applicants which make the field appear more competitive, the academic credentials of students are also becoming more impressive, in part due to the increase in international students who have begun to flood US colleges and universities.
"I met a Korean freshman who scored a 2400/2400 on the SAT, after taking it once," Dunnham said. "She also was conducting impressive research and loved debate."
Getty / Jim RogashHowever, there may be reason to view this lowering acceptance rate with some skepticism, Cat McManus, a counselor InGenius Prep and a former assistant dean and regional director at The University of Pennsylvania, told Business Insider via email.