College admissions for the past 20 years has always been a stressful rite of passage for every high school senior pursuing higher education; however, as of late college admissions standards have risen dramatically as aspiring seniors battle to stand out to colleges in a seemingly endless stream of qualified applicants.
Colleges now are looking for “well-rounded” students who have consistently dedicated their time to serving their community and sharpening their thirst for knowledge outside of the classroom while still maintaining stellar grades and test scores.
An approach that seems holistic and perfect on paper but consequently encourages kids to invest in extracurriculars and passion projects they do not actually a=care about just to look good for colleges.
This doesn’t apply to all the kids who grinded through high school as there are surely people who genuinely care about everything they are involved in, but to say that there are no extrinsic motivations to being involved in 7+ clubs and organizations would be extremely naïve.
Adding to that, attempting to balance everything required to be successful applicant leaves you with very little time for yourself and non-school related activities.
Which begs the question “Are colleges demanding the impossible?”
Many juniors and seniors are sleep-deprived with an average of 3-6 hours of sleep on a good day, others are miserable and derive little enjoyment from their daily lives.
Rising seniors are advised to start studying for the SAT in their own time, but where is the time?
AP courses pile hours of homework and study to complete by a deadline and time-consuming sports can run on till late in the evenings. There is really no way to get everything done without sacrificing sleep, a social life, or both.
A recent example of the increase in admission standards is UT Austin who had a record-breaking 91,000 applicants for the Fall 2025 semester compared to the 73,000 of last year.
Out of those 91,000, 94.5% of those were deferred of those applicants were deferred with promises of an admission decision by Jan 15, but only 5,000 students-about 5.5% of applicants-received decisions by then.
UT deferred the remaining 86,000 applications who would then receive their admission decision by an extended deadline of Feb. 15.
To avoid a repeat of this, UT will once again require standardized testing scores in the coming Fall semester. And the automatic admissions threshold to UT will be changed from those ranked in the top 6% of their school to the top 5% for the Fall 2026 semester.
Once again increasing the standards of admission required of kids and there is no true way to stop this as the more colleges demand, the more we do with little push back.
Of course, there must be some criteria for college admissions to ensure students can handle the academic rigor associated with university and prevent kids who are a bad for that college taking space from potentially better suited students.
However, the one percent difference in class rank is not the tell all that would prevent such a scenario instead a partial or complete restructuring of how both seniors an college’s approach college admissions are due where students are applying to a range of colleges that actually interest them and colleges have more time and resources to expend to carefully give each candidate the evaluation they deserve.