Elite colleges and universities around the country announced record low acceptance rates this week as the investigation as the college admissions scandal investigation pushes on.
The New York Times reported this week that many elite colleges and universities are reporting the lowest acceptance rates in their respective histories. Yale University’s new acceptance rate is 5.91 percent, down from 6.31 in the previous year. USC, which was at the center of the college admissions scandal, reported an 11 percent acceptance rate, the lowest in school history. Universities like Harvard and Stanford also reported record-low acceptance rates, both below five percent.
College admissions experts from around the country are concerned about the increasingly competitive nature of the college admissions process. Now, many students feel that they won’t be able to find a successful career if they can’t gain admission to an elite college or university.
“There’s a vicious cycle that fuels admission angst and spawns desperation,” college admission analyst Sally Rubenstone said in a comment. “Each year as elite-college acceptance rates get smaller, students apply to longer and longer lists of colleges to maximize their chances of good news.”
“Gone are the days when the student just takes the SAT,” Neale Gay, a college guidance counselor, said in a comment. “Their prestige, their name recognition, has created an incredibly competitive atmosphere for young people, and their increasing anxiety is really troublesome.”
In March, the Department of Justice announced that they were investigating a wide-ranging college admissions scandal. As a part of the scandal, dozens of parents allegedly paid thousands of dollars to bribe university officials in exchange for admission. In some instances, parents allegedly paid to have an adult take the SAT and ACT exam for their child.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on the college admission scandal.