Has Your Application Status Has Been Updated?

With April in full swing, seniors at Madison High School are eating, sleeping, and breathing college decisions. While some can take a deep breath, having finished applications and made a decision on where they will spend the next four years, others are now facing the major decision that impacts their future head-on.

The admissions process for the class of 2022 has been stressful and unprecedented, leaving many students unsure of where to turn next many times throughout the process with a myriad of different circumstances students need to face. From applying to several more colleges than usual to combat historical applicant pool sizes to considering if applying test-optional would be a better option.

More students at MHS chose to apply to Rutgers University in New Brunswick over any other single institution. State universities, such as Rutgers, Rowan, and Montclair State provide students with lower tuition rates and the ability to be close to home making them a popular choice for at least one application per student. 

Within a sample of the Madison High School senior class, we discovered that an overwhelming majority of students chose to apply either Early Decision or Early Action to at least one school, suggesting that students both had a clear idea of where they wanted to attend and wanted to know their results sooner rather than later. While some students committed to college early due to athletic commitments, many students waited for months to hear back from the institutions they applied to.

Most seniors at Madison High School applied to between 6 and 8 different schools. According to the College Board, this number is in line with the national average. However, application numbers to certain colleges jumped greatly, with schools such as New York University reporting that they received 105,000 applications this year, the greatest number ever received in the school’s history.

This increase made this admissions cycle a heartbreaking one for many seniors, as only 37.9% reported that they were accepted into their “dream school” and several others were waitlisted from multiple institutions. I myself received waitlist offers from a number of schools that I would previously have considered “safety schools” or schools where my academic profile exceeded that of typical applicants. 

With enrollment deposits due at many universities by May 1st, students are committing in mass numbers as they tour colleges and attend accepted student days for one last look before making their decision. For many, the desire to publicly share the culmination of their hard work for the past 4 years comes in the form of a social media post either on their Instagram feed or through the @mhsdecisions2022 account.

It’s definitely exciting as a senior to see where my classmates will be attending (I will be attending Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications) and what their plans are for the next four years as our time at Madison High School comes to a close. Many, including myself, are ready to take a deep breath after the stressful college application process and celebrate at end of year events such as prom and graduation with a clear head.