After seeing the Class of 2020 and 2021 lose so much of their high school experience, this year’s seniors thought they were in the clear. With a return to in-person learning and the lifting of the mask mandate, the Class of 2022 were thrilled to be back at Malden High School and ready to conquer their senior year.
As they worked diligently on their college applications with counselors and advisors, many had high hopes for where they would attend college in the fall. Unfortunately, no one could have predicted the astronomical rise in college applications and the consequent decrease in acceptance rates.
For instance, Northeastern University received over 91,000 applications (compared to last year’s 75,000) and admitted approximately 6,000, making their acceptance rate just 7%.
Similarly, Boston University had over 80,000 applicants this year with only 14% being admitted. Columbia’s acceptance rate was a mere 3.73%, admitting 2,253 out of 60,377 applicants.
The reason for these numbers? While there has yet to be conclusive evidence, it is reasonable to say that schools going test-optional had some part in this year’s acceptance numbers. With higher institutions allowing applicants to waive their test scores, more students were encouraged to apply to said schools, making the applicant pool more competitive.
Senior class Vice President Sarah Oliveira expressed that since so many students ended up applying to schools they normally would not have, it “ended up screwing over the students that should have been getting in without a problem.”
“I feel like a lot of us were robbed of the chance this year to get into the schools that we should have gotten into,” she stated.
Now, whether SAT scores should continue to be required for colleges is another debate. However, it is worth mentioning that MIT has announced they will reinstate SAT and ACT mandates for next year’s applicants, making them the first prominent university to reverse a suspension of the requirement that was put in place because of the pandemic.
Another reason as to why the college admissions process was so competitive this year could be the over-admittance of students from last year’s class. According to The Huntington News, last year, Northeastern had to renew and create new contracts with Boston hotels in order to accommodate their increase in first-year students.
Senior Leslie Rodriguez explained how she was admitted to Northeastern this year into their NU Bound program, where she would be living off-campus for her first year. Though this program was established in 2007, Rodriguez believes that more students than usual are being admitted into it because the school admitted too many students from previous classes, leaving less space for incoming first years.
Jana Elshafey, another senior, shared similar sentiments, “We are paying the consequences of [last year’s issues] when we did absolutely nothing.”
Senior Kayleen Denis brought up another disadvantage that the graduating seniors faced, “We didn’t get the workshopping that we usually should get [during] junior year and we also were thrown into things like essays and financial aid forms without really knowing what they were.”
The Class of 2022 experienced a majority of their junior year, arguably the most important year of high school, remotely. It was not until late second semester that the hybrid option became available. This made it harder for counselors to administer time to prep juniors for the upcoming college application process before their senior year.
Denis described the process as being “tedious and annoying at times,” adding that “I had to deal with hearing statistics being thrown my way and also wondering if college was even the right option considering how costs have skyrocketed and how my work ethic has completely depleted since COVID happened.”
Originally, Oliveira would not have agreed that the Class of 2022 had any sort of disadvantage this year when it came to college applications. Each year, “everyone gets disappointed, that’s just how college is. You can’t expect to get into all of your schools.”
However, after the last of decisions came out for most schools on April 1st, she said that the outcome was “incredibly unexpected.”
“I think the majority of students were only getting into their safety schools or schools that had generally higher acceptance rates, and the schools that they considered to be targets, or strong candidates for… did not happen.”
She continued, “It doesn't feel like there [was] a meticulous plan of who gets accepted and what [colleges] were looking for because these schools were rejecting students that were more than qualified… people with languages and extracurriculars and commitments that made them excellent candidates.”
Aside from being class vice president, Oliveira holds leadership positions on the swim team and Science National Honors Society as well. She has high aspirations for herself and has shown it through her persistent commitment and dedication to extracurricular activities and in school.
“I tried really, really hard in school and got so disappointed along the way, that where I am now is never where I would have thought I would end up.” She said this in no means to downgrade where she ends up attending, just to express that she imagined herself choosing between entirely different schools.
Looking back, Elshafey wishes that she would have focused more on herself and less on schoolwork. “I think I sacrificed way too much time talking to my guidance counselors [and] forced into all these AP classes that I took for absolutely no reason, I just took them so I could be admitted into a good college, but I ended up with nothing…” she trailed off.
Oliveira joked that if anything, she wishes she had just been “born earlier” so she could have applied during another application cycle.
In all seriousness, Oliveira would have spent more time with her friends and had more fun in the past four years.
“You think that [getting into college] is what makes it all worth it. When, in reality, we were so disappointed that if this was the only thing you were working for, you feel like there's absolutely no point to life anymore because you're not where you thought you'd be.
So, I do think that if I would have taken off the stress of a test or a quiz, and I didn’t have my entire future riding on my shoulders… if I had just prioritized a little bit different now that I know that it's not just about college… I could have been a little bit happier, and less stressed, and enjoyed life more, and gone out to eat, and hung out with my friends, and watched a movie, instead of stressing about what now is so pointless.”
The past few years have been tough for everyone, but especially for high schoolers that are still trying to navigate life in a world that is constantly changing. However, one thing remains constant and that is the perseverance and resilience that students across the world have demonstrated and continue to do so despite the obstacles thrown in their path.
