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Students are sending more college applications now than eight years ago

A Common App analysis reported the most recent trends on college applicants.

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The Common Application has become more important in the application process of students over the years. It now counts more than 1,000 member colleges and handled submissions from over 1.2 million unique applicants in 2021-22, according to the Higher Ed Dive

Last week, the Common App released an analysis stating that students are sending more college applications now than they did in the past. Through it, it’s possible to see the behavior patterns of the students that are sending in a large number of applications, and which colleges are seeing their application totals rise. 

The analysis showed that the average applicant submitted 6.22 applications in the 2021-22 admissions cycle — which has been climbing steadily over the years from 4.63 in 2013-14. 

However, most students apply to five or fewer institutions on the platform. High-volume applicants are overwhelmingly applying to selective private institutions.  

The share of students applying to more than 10 colleges shot up from 8% to 17% between 2014-15 and 2021-22. Private high school students, early decision applicants and international students are the ones that tend to apply to more colleges — which also correlates with wealth and access to higher education.

Regarding test scores, students with high standardized test scores submit more college applications. High-volume applicants were eight times more likely to submit test scores when applying to institutions that allowed them to do so, compared to those who submitted five or fewer applications, Higher Ed Dive stated. These applicants also posted higher scores, on average 130 points more than their lower-volume peers. 

Since the pandemic, there has been a change in the requirement of standardized test submissions as students were struggling to find testing sites. For this reason, many institutions dropped its requirement and haven’t gone back since then, making it optional now.  

Other findings from the analysis include that students in the Northeast were likely to submit a higher number of applications, which could be related to the fact that the region is densely populated with four-year institutions.

“Proximity is a primary determinant of where applicants are likely to apply, so it is expected that having fewer options within one’s geographic region would tend to predict less high-volume application activity ,” the analysis said, according to the Higher Ed Dive.

Talking costs, the analysis also found that, for institutions that charge, application fees average about $50. Those who received fee waivers applied more frequently — showing how fees can be a financial barrier to submitting multiple applications.

To learn other findings from the analysis, click here.

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