Why College Admissions Has Never Been Harder (And What to Do About It)

In the 1990s, Harvard accepted roughly 15% of applicants. Today, that number is 3.2%. Yale has fallen from 19% to 3.7%. Stanford from 17% to 3.7%. Even schools outside the top 10 have seen acceptance rates halve over the past 20 years.

This is not because students got worse. It is because the applicant pool got dramatically larger and more globally competitive. The Common Application, launched in 1975 and widely adopted through the 1990s and 2000s, made it easy to apply to many schools at once. The COVID-era shift to test-optional admissions removed a barrier that previously filtered some applicants out. International student enrollment increased substantially.

The result: schools that once received 20,000 applications now receive 50,000 or 60,000. The same number of seats. Dramatically more competition for each one.

This is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to take college planning seriously, to start early, and to understand what the process actually involves before your student is in the middle of it.

Before 2020, the college testing question was simple: take the SAT, take the ACT, submit your best score. In 2020, the pandemic forced nearly every college to go test-optional. Many stayed that way. Others have reversed course. Some went test-free (meaning they will never consider scores, even if submitted). And a handful of elite schools, including MIT and Yale, reinstated test requirements.

Here is the current landscape as of 2025:

Test-required schools want your best score and will use it as a meaningful factor. At MIT, scoring below the 75th percentile is a significant disadvantage.

Test-optional schools will consider your application without a score, but will use a score if you submit one. The conventional wisdom: if your score is above a school's median, submit it. If it is below, consider withholding it. But even this rule has nuance.

Test-free schools will not look at scores under any circumstances.

Superscoring means the school combines your best section scores across multiple test dates. Many schools superscore both the SAT and ACT. If a school superscores, taking the test multiple times and focusing on different sections each time is a legitimate strategy.

Navigating this correctly requires knowing the policy at every school on your list, planning your testing timeline to allow retakes if needed, and making submission decisions strategically. Families who assume the old rules still apply are often wrong in ways that hurt their students.

The college counseling industry is largely invisible to families who can't afford it, and very visible to those who can. Private college counselors, the kind who work with students from freshman year through application submission, typically charge between $5,000 and $10,000 for a full-service engagement. At the high end of the market, in major cities and for families targeting elite schools, packages can cost $25,000 to $50,000 or more.

What do they provide for that fee? Strategic planning on course selection and activities from 9th grade onward. Essay coaching (often the most valuable service). School list building based on deep knowledge of each institution's admissions culture. Application review. Interview preparation. And ongoing support that keeps the family organized and on track over four years.

These services produce real results. Students who work with experienced private counselors apply with more strategic profiles, write better essays, and build more calibrated lists. The gap between counseled and uncounseled students at the most selective schools is measurable.

The problem is obvious: this resource is concentrated among families with means. First-generation students, students from rural areas, students at under-resourced high schools, and middle-class families who can't justify a $10,000 counseling fee are navigating the same process with far less support. Prentice was built to change that.

Each year for the past decade has set a new record for total applications submitted via the Common Application. The Class of 2029 (students who graduated high school in 2025) applied in the most competitive cycle ever recorded:

Total Common App applications exceeded 7 million submissions. The average number of schools students applied to reached an all-time high. Early Decision applications, which signal commitment to one school and are admitted at higher rates, hit record volumes, crowding out Regular Decision pools at schools that fill significant portions of their class with ED admits.

The downstream effects: Regular Decision acceptance rates are lower than ever, because a larger fraction of each class is already committed via Early Decision. Students who apply Regular Decision to schools that fill 40-50% of their class via ED are competing for a dramatically smaller pool of spots.

This is a structural shift, not a bad year. Families who understand it can respond strategically: considering Early Decision at a genuine first-choice school where it makes financial sense, building a longer list than previous generations needed, and not over-relying on schools where the odds have shifted most dramatically.

Prentice was built from the observation that the gap between counseled and uncounseled students is not primarily about intelligence or work ethic. It is about information, structure, and ongoing support.

Students with good counselors know what colleges are actually looking for. They track their activities systematically so nothing is forgotten. They have their testing strategy mapped out years in advance. Their college list is calibrated, not aspirational. Their essays are drafted, revised, and polished by someone who has read thousands of them.

Prentice brings that structure to every student:

Activity tracking from 9th grade onward, so nothing is lost and the full record is ready when applications open.

Opportunity discovery matched to your grade, interests, and goals, so students know what programs, scholarships, and summer experiences exist for them.

Grade-by-grade roadmaps that tell students what to focus on now, without the anxiety of trying to figure it out alone.

Assessments that help students identify their genuine interests and strengths, the foundation of a compelling application narrative.

Personalized planning built around the student's actual profile, not a generic checklist.

The application process is harder than it has ever been. But the families who approach it with clear information, early preparation, and the right tools navigate it successfully. That is what Prentice is for.