Competition has taken on a whole new definition when it comes to college. In the past ten years, tears have been shed and dreams crushed as more applications have been denied to students. Applications have almost doubled with a record of 17,768 submission letters sent to universities for the fall 2009 term.

A small percentage of applicants can look forward to getting a “fat envelope” sent to them in the mail. In 2007, UCLA received 87,213 applications and only accepted 50,787 students. According to Newsweek.com, the number of applications rose fifteen percent for the fall term.

Many students believe that they should broaden their horizon and apply to multiple colleges so they can get accepted to at least one university. Some students apply to twenty five colleges which is one of the reasons why colleges are getting so many applications.

“Kids are applying to more colleges so colleges are getting more applications, but the amount of students isn’t getting any bigger,” Counselor Mr. Brown said. “Colleges have to hold the line of freshman getting accepted.”

When applying for colleges, it is recommended that students include advanced placement classes on high school transcripts to show their strengths, a well organized essay and have very strong recommendation letters. Also, pupils should turn their applications in early; this increases students chances of getting accepted by fifteen percent.

In the fall of sophomore and junior year, students should take the PSAT before taking the SAT. Colleges will most likely send information to students so they can start looking at universities, if not already.

When colleges look at students’ high school transcripts and applications, most of their decisions come from certain parts of their acceptance letters. Fifty percent of acceptances come from GPA’s throughout high school and the other fifty percent is split between SAT scores and the involvement of students. 

“For college, I stressed out the most about grades in general. I want to have good grades so colleges will consider looking at my transcript,” Senior Taylor Tollack said.

Getting into college doesn’t only depend on excellent grades and high test scores. Students also need to be well rounded and involved in sports, plays, clubs, and/or extra curricular activities.

“To stand out for college, I’m in speech and debate, on the dance team, a youth group leader, president and founder of a club called Stand up for Kids, vice president for the College Readiness club, an intern for law firm and I attend a lot of leadership camps,” Senior Ashley Ceballos said.

Even though applying for a university is a hair pulling, nail biting, and all around stressful experience, students will always find a college for them. Looking into smaller schools and outside of the Ivy League can lower the stress of students of getting into the “perfect” college.

“The most important thing I would say is that there is a college out there for [all students] and that [students] should make the application process a journey of self discovery. Students will learn more about themselves and enjoy it,” Brown said.