Public colleges, universities trim acceptance rates: report
Some admission rates, for Harvard and other Ivy League schools, were in the single digits
Public colleges and universities are reportedly trimming acceptance rates.
With applications surging following the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic, top public schools are seeing rates once associated with Ivy League universities, the Hill reported on Wednesday.
Ivy League schools have also cut their admissions rates; the Harvard Crimson said Harvard College accepted 3.19% of applicants to the class of 2026.
The paper said it was the lowest rate in the school's history and down from 3.43% last year.
Applications rose by nearly 7%.
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On the East Coast, The Cavalier Daily reported that the University of Virginia admitted a record-low 19% of its applicants.
A father and teenage daughter visit the University of Virginia Campus, Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by: Robert Knopes/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Data from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill showed an overall acceptance rate of 16.8%.
The Hill reported that a decade ago, the schools had admission rates of over 60%.
At the University of Illinois campus in Urbana-Champaign, admittance rates have fallen to 44.8%.
Students walk on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus in December. The Biden administration has grappled with ending the pause on loan payments as the economy recovers from pandemic lows continues. ((Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
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"Don't be discouraged from applying based on a lower admit rate. Applicant pools vary from year to year and our holistic review process ensures we admit those best suited for each program," the school says on its website.
Of the 39,615 applications received for the class of 2026, 16,729 were accepted this fall after The Red & Black reported a historically low percentage in 2021.
The campus of the University of California Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022 in Los Angeles. University of California officials announce extension of remote instruction on five campuses, say high COVID-19 positivity rates call for extra precautions ((Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
On the West Coast, freshman admittance data from popular University of California schools shows percentages had fallen, with just 8.6% of students granted entrance to UCLA and 11% to Cal.
Last year, both universities accepted thousands more students and the UC system plans to add 23,000 students by the end of the decade.
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According to U.S. News and World Report, the average acceptance rate among all ranked colleges was around 70% last year.