Ivy Day 2024
An Open Letter to Seniors for “Ivy Day” 2024:
All through February and March, colleges and universities across the US have been releasing their decisions for regular cycle applicants (early action and early decision outcomes were released in fall and early winter of the 2023-2024 admissions cycle, and we provided an update on those early outcomes here). Now here we are on “Ivy Day,” when a group of the most elite undergraduate schools in the country issue their acceptances. Some of you will be admitted to these fine institutions-- this year we have had students admitted to Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Penn, not to mention venerable institutions like Northwestern, Amherst, Emory, and RISD. I celebrate with you! You have worked incredibly hard for this honor, and you deserve every bit of excitement you feel.
For every qualified student who gains admission to one of these schools or another highly selective institution, however, there are dozens denied a spot. My students ask me despairingly, “What is wrong with me?” “What more should I have done?” My heart breaks when I hear these pleas because they are misplaced. There is nothing wrong with you. I know your accomplishments and experiences-- you have essays just as compelling, SAT scores just as high, letters of recommendation just as glowing, transcripts just as impressive. The reality is that this is a numbers game, and the numbers are not what they used to be.
Getting Rejected from Ivy League Schools
When I was sixteen years old, I had my heart set on Princeton. It was the closest Ivy to my home, I still had a high school boyfriend I wanted to be near, and even though I had a rather awful campus visit (including a host student who left me waiting alone at the train station for three hours in a time before cell phones), I didn’t have much to compare it to. I was convinced that it was everything I needed and wanted. And then I was waitlisted. To add insult to injury, I was rejected from Yale and Harvard too. I can still summon the sting of opening those three ominously thin envelopes on that chilly April afternoon. I had to settle for-- wait for it-- Stanford. I tried to hide my disappointment, but I felt like an utter failure. What was wrong with me? What more should I have done?
As it turns out, I had an incredible four years in college. I was challenged, motivated, surrounded by brilliant and engaging humans, and made some of the best friends of my life. It really was everything I never knew I wanted. What’s the moral of the story? There are many, but one is that what you think is best isn’t always. Princeton is an excellent school, but in retrospect, Stanford was a much better fit for my personality and interests. Another is that other people’s perception of what really matters shouldn’t matter to you. If you can believe it, back in 1995 many people on the east coast weren’t as familiar with Stanford, and I was often asked if I was going to a local college in Stamford, Connecticut or even a two-year school. Ouch.
How have College Acceptance Rates Changed?
But let me make another point. My students often are impressed by my fancy degrees from Stanford and Columbia Law School. I am proud of the work I put into earning those degrees. It was a great privilege to have those opportunities, and I have devoted my professional life to helping students do what they can to open doors to educational success so they too can learn and grow in the ways that I have found so enriching. But let’s not compare apples and oranges. Do you know what the acceptance rate to Stanford was that year? 15,390 students applied to Stanford in the fall of 1994, and Stanford admitted 2,900 of them the following spring. For the era, that was a highly selective acceptance rate of 18.8%. For comparison, that same year UPenn accepted 33% of its applicants, and Princeton accepted 14.3%. These rates pale in comparison to today’s numbers at top schools, which at NYU, Northwestern and Rice are well below 10% and at Princeton, Yale, and Harvard will surely continue to be effectively around 2-3% for the graduating class of 2024.
Are Selective Universities Worth It?
There are all kinds of good reasons to seek admission to a selective college. The one that I found most meaningful in my life was the chance to study with engaging professors and motivated students, or to quote Ron Lieber, to have my “mind grown and my mind blown.” Those smart kids and talented professors aren’t just clustered at the top ten schools anymore (and that’s for so many reasons, not just shockingly low acceptance rates, but also skyrocketing college costs and an increasing societal emphasis on access to higher education for all). You are going to find inspiring peers and professors all over the place— in community college, or Arizona State, or at Northwestern. So, continue to seek those challenges, but stop defining yourself by whether a school has deemed you “worthy.” You already were and always will be worthy of greatness, so carry on and find your way. I’m cheering you on.
