College admissions in the United States

College admissions in the United States refers to the process of applying for entrance to institutions of higher education for undergraduate study at one of the nation's colleges or universities. For those who intend to attend college immediately after high school, the college search usually begins in the eleventh grade with most activity taking place during the twelfth grade. Applications to many schools are due in October of senior year for Early Decision or Early Action or in December of their senior year for Regular Decision, though the timeline may vary depending on the universities, some having an earlier deadline due to the fact that the admissions process may weigh in more on transcripts. Students at top high schools may often begin the process during their tenth grade or earlier. There are considerable numbers of students who transfer from one college to another, as well as adults older than high school age who apply to college. Millions of high school students apply to college each year, with approximately 4.23 million in the high school graduating age group in 2018–19 and an estimated 3.68 million high school graduates (3.33 million and 0.35 million coming from public and private schools respectively). The number of high school graduates is projected to rise to 3.89 million in 2025–26 before falling to 3.71 million in 2027–28. From within this cohort, the number of first-time freshmen in post-secondary fall enrollment was 2.90 million in 2019, divided between 4-year colleges (1.29 million attending public institutions and 0.59 million attending private) and 2-year colleges (approximately 0.95 million public; 0.05 million private). The number of first-time freshmen is expected to continue increasing, reaching 2.96 million in 2028, maintaining the demand for a college education. 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.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related concepts (4)

Bowdoin College

Bowdoin College (ˈboʊdᵻn ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 35 majors and 40 minors, as well as several joint engineering programs with Columbia, Caltech, Dartmouth College, and the University of Maine. The college was a founding member of its athletic conference, the New England Small College Athletic Conference, and the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium, an athletic conference and inter-library exchange with Bates College and Colby College.

Need-blind admission

Need-blind admission in the United States refers to a college admission policy that does not take into account an applicant's financial status when deciding whether to accept them. This approach typically results in a higher percentage of accepted students who require financial assistance and often necessitates that the institution has a substantial endowment or other funding sources to support the policy. Institutions which participated in an antitrust exemption granted by Congress were required by law to be need-blind, a requirement which remained in effect until September 30, 2022.

Bates College

Bates College (beɪts ) is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals . It maintains of nature preserve known as the "Bates-Morse Mountain" near Campbell Island and a coastal center on Atkins Bay. Bates provides undergraduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering and offers joint undergraduate programs. A baccalaureate college, the undergraduate program requires all students to complete a thesis before graduation, and has a privately funded research enterprise.