Application inflation is an increasing trend where more high school seniors are applying to larger numbers of colleges. With more applications, competition to get into a good school is greater than ever before. Simultaneously, grade inflation is also on a rise. No longer is a 4.0 GPA or a perfect score on the SAT/ACT as impressive as it wasn’t in the past. Together these trends have elevated academic stress and pressure for high school juniors and seniors.
As a high school junior at FPM, I know firsthand the effects of application inflation. Also, I’ve seen how my peers use their college résumé as their main motivation to start extracurriculars and projects. According to a Common App, students applying to 10 or more schools increased from 8% to 17% in 2022. This increase can be attributed to universities going test optional on the SAT/ACT in 2020. Students are applying to schools they never would’ve dreamed of if they had to include these scores.
In order to stand out among thousands of applicants, students try to build perfect resumes, including inflated accolades such as creating nonprofits, earning world renowned achievements, completing internships with international companies, etc. Obviously, this is not the case for every student, but social media has brought awareness to these overachievers. When your social media feed is filled with “admissions officers” and “teachers” urging you to do more, it can build a lot of pressure on the average student.
I believe that the culture around college admissions is often toxic and competitive in an unhealthy way. Constant comparison to other students who got into dream schools and Ivies is harmful and can lead to burnout and self-doubt. The first thought someone has when considering a new hobby, or volunteering, or applying for a job should not be, “Will this look good on my résumé?” The entire purpose of extracurriculars on a résumé is to show the character of the applicant; however, when the only reason they’re doing these activities is to appeal to an admissions officer, the activities become performative and redundant.
In a nation where a university education is highly valued and competition is natural, application inflation aggravates the university process making it exceedingly difficult to get in. With students around the country going to great lengths to get accepted, it’s important to remember why we join clubs, sports, and AP classes. It’s not to get to the next place, or to the next school, or to the most popular college, it’s to learn about ourselves and the world around us. So next time you begin to compare yourself with another student, and you believe that you’re not doing enough or you’re falling behind, remember what you’ve accomplished and what you’ve learned. A school will accept you for being yourself, not for following trends or modeling others.
