
Is it Harder to Get
into
College? Not Necessarily
While news headl
ines and anxious parent may tell you o
therwise,
the fact is it is no more difficult for most
students to get
into
college today than 10 years ago. That’s
the message
in a new report from
the Center for Public Educati
on, an
initiative
of the Nati
onal
School Boards Associati
on.
The report, titled “Chas
ing
the College Acceptance Letter,” c
oncludes that if
students are well prepared
in high school and earn
the right credentials,
they will most likely get
into a competitive university. What qualifies as
the right credentials? Not necessarily straight A’s.
The report suggests “decent grades,”
college prep courses, and good scores
on college entrance exams will get most
students into a competitive university even if it is not
the school of their dreams.
But
the report also po
ints out that m
inority and low-
income
students are less likely to get
the credentials necessary for admissi
on into a competitive university. And even those low-
income
students who are well prepared are less likely to get accepted to a competitive
school than
their
high-
income counterparts (67 percent vs. 80 percent).