College application numbers will peak in 2009, putting Uppers in the most competitive admissions process in history. Next year, the largest high school class ever will graduate, consisting of approximately 3.2 million high school seniors. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the 18 to 24-year-old population will reach just under 30 million between 2009 and 2010 and then plateau for a few years before declining near 2015. But Phillips Academy students might not have to worry. “I think there will not be any impact at all for our applicant pool,” said John Anderson, Director of College Counseling. College application numbers will peak in 2009. Next year, the largest high school class ever will graduate, consisting of approximately 3.2 million high school seniors. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the 18 to 24-year-old population will reach just under 30 million between 2009 and 2010 and then plateau for a few years before declining near 2015. Rekha Auguste-Nelson ’09 said, “A lot of the kids in our class know we’re going to be the biggest pool of applicants, and I think it makes us a little more uneasy about applying.” Although the number of 18-year-olds is not supposed to peak until next year, according to The New York Times, previous classes have already experienced the impact of high applicant numbers. Declining college acceptance rates have encouraged students to apply to more colleges, as safety schools become first-choice colleges, and overall college statistics reflect discouraging odds. “A lot of colleges said that this is one of the hardest years to get in that they’ve ever seen because there are so many applicants,” said Nicholas Hargreaves-Heald ’08, who was deferred from Amherst College, his first choice. Hargreaves-Heald continued, “[Amherst] had a kind of information session. They said that they had over-admitted students [last year] – I think there were about 30 to 40 students the previous year, which meant there are 30 to 40 less spots in my class, or what would be my class. That obviously made it more difficult for me.” According to The New York Times, with more applicants, colleges now face the challenge of reviewing each candidate and distinguishing among them. As more highly-qualified students apply, it has become harder to stand out. Auguste-Nelson said the increasingly competitive applicant pool has made it harder for her and her classmates to make themselves unique. “Now I think a lot of us are just worried that we’re going to have to try to pile on more and more things about ourselves to kind of stand out from everybody else,” she said. Although he entered Andover as a hockey recruit, Brooks Dyroff ’09 acknowledges that sports are only one part of an application. “If I am a recruit when I apply to college, [playing hockey] will definitely help,” he said. “But it’s not just that.” Michelle Hollebeke ’08, who has played competitive softball since she was young, agreed. Unlike most of her classmates, Hollebeke only applied to Colgate University, where she was recruited for softball. With more players to choose from, colleges can have higher standards for their recruits. “They can’t give you a ‘bye,’ like you don’t have to go through the application process because you don’t have good enough grades to get in there,” Hollebeke said. “I think you [still] have to earn your way into a certain college that you are recruited to.”
