Part 2
Well if the Baby Boomers aren’t to blame . . . then who or what is?
So, if the generation of baby boomers who had kids in the 80’s isn’t the villain, then who is? Exactly what are the causes for the unprecedented surge in qualified applications at top colleges? First, let’s take a quick look at how we know the problem isn’t simply caused by the population “echo” as most media reports suggest. Applications at America’s top colleges have skyrocketed; that’s a fact. Several admissions offices report that their applications have actually doubled in the past 3 or 4 years. But hold on a minute, everyone involved needs to take a deep breath before making any rush to judgment.
While applications have gone through the roof, the much ballyhooed surge in the college age population represents a meager increase of about 10% from the relatively normal admissions environment of just a few years ago! For the census statisticians in the government who track that sort of population trend, it’s an enormous change. For the rest of us, 10% isn’t even a particularly good sale at Target or Kohl’s. The bottom line is this, a 10% surge in college age population doesn’t, by itself, generate a 100% surge in applications. Logically, it can be argued that the echo should be responsible for roughly 10% of today’s application hysteria but that’s about it. The actual source of the application crisis is the coalescence of several smaller factors in a relatively short period of time. No one factor is critical but the collective impact has literally reshaped the world of a high school senior applying to college.
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