College admissions in the United States

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College admissions in the United States is the process of applying for undergraduate study at colleges or universities.^[1] For students entering college directly after high school, the process typically begins in eleventh grade, with most applications submitted during twelfth grade.^[2] Deadlines vary, with Early Decision or Early Action applications often due in October or November, and regular decision applications in December or January.^[3][4] Students at competitive high schools may start earlier, and adults or transfer students also apply to colleges in significant numbers.^[3]

Each year, millions of high school students apply to college. In 2018–19, there were approximately 3.68 million high school graduates, including 3.33 million from public schools and 0.35 million from private schools.^[5] The number of first-time freshmen entering college that fall was 2.90 million, including students at four-year public (1.29 million) and private (0.59 million) institutions, as well as two-year public (0.95 million) and private (0.05 million) colleges. First-time freshman enrollment is projected to rise to 2.96 million by 2028.^[6]

Students can apply to multiple schools and file separate applications to each school. Recent developments such as electronic filing via the Common Application, now used by about 800 schools and handling 25 million applications, have facilitated an increase in the number of applications per student.^[7][8] Around 80 percent of applications were submitted online in 2009.^[9] About a quarter of applicants apply to seven or more schools, paying an average of $40 per application.^[10] Most undergraduate institutions admit students to the entire college as "undeclared" undergraduates and not to a particular department or major, unlike many European universities and American graduate schools, although some undergraduate programs may require a separate application at some universities. Admissions to two-year colleges or community colleges are more simple, often requiring only a high school transcript and in some cases, minimum test score.

Recent trends in college admissions include increased numbers of applications, increased interest by students in foreign countries in applying to American universities,^[11] more students applying by an early method,^[9] applications submitted by Internet-based methods including the Common Application and Coalition for College, increased use of consultants, guidebooks, and rankings, and increased use by colleges of waitlists.^[9] These trends have made college admissions a very competitive process, and a stressful one for student, parents and college counselors alike, while colleges are competing for higher rankings, lower admission rates and higher yield rates to boost their prestige and desirability. Admission to U.S. colleges in the aggregate level has become more competitive, however, most colleges admit a majority of those who apply. The selectivity and extreme competition has been very focused in a handful of the most selective colleges.^[7] Schools at the top 100 ranked U.S. News & World Report had an admit rate below 35% for freshmen^[when?], totaling below 200,000 out of 2.90 million total freshmen in all post-secondary institutions.^{[citation needed]}