It’s that time of year again. Seniors who plan on applying to universities have to brace for the impact. To up the anxiety, many students are finding that a suspiciously large number of universities are rejecting them despite their above-average scores and grades. Now, someone could say maybe they just aren’t good enough for the universities in question, but let’s look at the statistics.

“Duke’s ED acceptance rate dropped about 5%, and the University of Georgia’s early acceptance rate decreased by almost 10% compared to the 2021-22 application cycle,” Forbes said.

Taking the information that we have from this year’s early applicants so far, we can expect that after all results are out from schools, we will see a continuation of the trend of acceptance rates dropping.

There are a few reasons why this is happening. There has been a major increase in the number of early applicants from the previous year. For example, Brown University had an increase in applications this year by 10%. Since there are more people applying with more confidence, that could explain the increase in denials for these universities that are notoriously strict on their applicants.

I know people getting denied from major universities like Brown and Stanford isn’t at all out of the ordinary, but universities like the University of Florida and the University of South Florida which are much less prestige have also been denying many applicants for what seems like more than past years. Many people, including myself, were told these schools would be given more leniency since students of the graduating class of 2023 have had to deal with COVID-19 and the switch to online school, which was completely out of their control. It is upsetting to think that some schools don’t care about how coronavirus affected the 2023 graduating class’s most vital years of high school.

I think most people can agree that college acceptance rates dropping is one of the most stressful things for a senior to witness. But I think it’s important to mention that in contrast, there have been universities that do take the pandemic into consideration. One school I applied to even asked me to elaborate on how my life and grades were impacted by the virus, which I appreciated. Therefore, the acceptance rates dropping shouldn’t dissuade you from applying to these schools. The overall message I’d provide to anyone applying to universities is to try your absolute best as well as take your time with your applications.