Colleges nationwide are seeing a drop in acceptance rates with more students submitting applications, and Binghamton University’s admissions staff is experiencing their share of the trend.
“The acceptance rate of applicants has decreased over the last five years,” said Cheryl Brown, BU’s director of admissions. “Approximately 33 percent of applicants were accepted in 2009 vs. 43 percent in 2005.”
Brown attributed the downward shift to the increasing number of BU applicants. According to Brown, the increase of applicants is a reflection of BU’s increasing national reputation and selectivity.
“From 2005 to 2009, BU has experienced a 34 percent increase in total applications,” Brown said. “For fall 2009, freshmen and transfer applications totaled 33,614.”
These increases have been similar across the country for other schools.
Nationwide, about three-quarters of four-year institutions received a greater number of applications for their fourth consecutive year.
The percent of applicants submitting applications to seven or more institutions has also increased from 19 to 22 percent over the last year.
This trend was described by a report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling. NACAC publishes the report annually, titled “State of College Admission,” using statistics from the U.S. Department of Education. This year’s report reflects applications for enrollment in the fall of 2008.
In addition to observing a greater number of applications and lower acceptance rates, the report noted that more students are graduating from high school. The report also mentioned that there was a slowed increase in the number of applications for early admission to colleges and an increase in demand for financial aid.
According to the report, there was an increase in the number of students who planned to postpone college for financial concerns.
Brown indicated that this was not the case at BU, however.
“The number of freshmen applying for financial aid via the FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] has remained fairly consistent from 2005 to 2009,” she wrote. She also stated that there has been no increase in mid-year requests for additional financial aid.
Sally Lowenstein, chairperson of the guidance department at Vestal Senior High School, which is among the schools who send students to BU, said the recession has led more students to seek out less expensive community colleges.
“I do believe that’s the driving force,” she said.
Lowenstein attributed the general rise in applications to the changes in the way students apply to schools.
“I think it has more to do with the use of the Common Application because it’s easier for students to apply to multiple schools,” she said.
The push to apply to more schools, said Lowenstein, is “coming more from the students than from us [guidance counselors].”
The SUNY system as a whole also experienced increases in the number of applications.
“We saw a 7 percent increase in applications for the fall 2009 semester,” said Casey Cannistraci of the SUNY Office of Communications.
“Applicants from out of state increased from 12,977 in 2008 to 15,612 for 2009. And international applicants increased from 3,582 to 5,450 during the same time period,” she said.
These figures do not include SUNY’s 30 community colleges.