If You Are a Rising High School Senior Read This Before School Starts

By Ava Mariya Gencheva 

Founder, VoicED Academy

College Admissions Strategist | Former School Director | UCLA Application Reader

5 min. read

Every year, I hear the same statement: College admissions are dead! Long live college admissions! Yes, this sounds strange, but it only comes to show that the only permanent thing in the admissions world is change. So, this year too, if you are a rising senior, you must embrace the change. Let’s take a look at what is actually going on and start with my least favorite. (I can reveal to you if you care to read why this is the least of my favorites, because not every college considers it to be very important. Some consider it important, others will, in fact, only consider and leave it at that.

Test scores are back, again

👽 I know. I feel like that, too. But looking at the statistics from last year, this is the first time since the 2019–2020 admissions cycle that the percentage of applicants submitting test scores exceeded those who didn’t, with 52% of Common App applicants reporting scores. The test-optional era isn’t exactly over, but its strategic value has eroded. At Boston College, students who submitted scores were admitted at roughly 28%, compared to just 17% for non-submitters. At Emory, the gap was even starker: 17% for submitters versus 8.6% for those who didn’t send scores. The lesson is blunt: “test-optional” was never “test-irrelevant,” and treating it that way is now a measurable disadvantage. And now, even the University of California schools are fighting to bring back the tests.

The resume, a friend or a foe

This is not a popular opinion, but I am going to say it because I really care. Find a job. Manage your time, a paycheck, and a cranky boss. In many cases, it means a lot more than a paid camp. This is not one-size-fits-all advice, but a job is much more impressive than many give it credit for. Do not strive for a polished resume, but instead, for a meaningful one. I have seen resumes of 17-year-olds that run 3 pages long and resemble a middle-aged professional’s experience. Not impressive. Why? Colleges are looking for your fresh enthusiasm  and innovative teen brain and not that of a seasoned professional. If that is who you are, you might as well skip college and join the workforce. If you choose to have AI write your resume, you might appear confident and accomplished, but sadly, an indistinguishable applicant from a sea of many others.  Research from Cornell and Carnegie Mellon found that essay language has grown significantly more homogeneous since AI tools became widely available—and officers on the other side of the desk are noticing.

More than 80% of admissions offices now use AI or predictive analytics as part of their review process, and these tools don't read generously. They look for coherence, clarity, and internal consistency. A polished but hollow application is easier to flag than ever.

What cuts through is evidence that exists independent of your application a research paper, a product someone actually uses, a competition result, a portfolio with a real exhibition history. Being the “president" of a club means little if you can't point to something you built or changed. Admissions officers are asking whether an application holds together as a credible whole. So, a surface-level polish is the easiest thing in the world to fake. Substance isn't.

Geography matters, and legacies do not (or so they say)

With California’s ban on legacy preferences now fully in effect, schools like Stanford and USC are seeing their first truly legacy-neutral results. Meanwhile, highly selective schools are actively trying to counterbalance classes that have become heavily concentrated on the coasts—meaning applicants from New York, California, and Massachusetts are facing steeper competition than peers from other regions. On the flip side, Southern and Southwestern schools are attracting surging interest, with the South now accounting for the largest share of Common App applicants, and the Southwest seeing the fastest growth at around 8%.

For all those students who are targeting US colleges

International applications declined about 9% this cycle compared to last year, a significant shift, since many colleges rely on international enrollment to fill their classes. At the same time, applications from first-generation students rose about 6%, and Black applicants represent the fastest-growing demographic group, up roughly 8%. For competitive schools, this reshaping of the applicant pool changes the composition of every seat they’re filling.

So, are schools actually getting easier to get into?

Well, yes and no.

Here's the part that gets lost in the anxiety spiral: the college admissions horror stories you see in the news are almost exclusively about a tiny slice of institutions. Elite universities like Harvard and Caltech accept as few as 1 in 33 applicants, but they are the exception, not the rule. For the vast majority of colleges, the story is quietly moving in the opposite direction.

The core reason is demographic. The pool of 18-year-olds in the U.S. is shrinking, and colleges are feeling it. Colleges overall now accept about 6 in 10 applicants, up from about 5 in 10 a decade ago. That's not a rounding error; that's a structural shift in how many seats are available relative to how many students are competing for them.

To fill those seats, schools are getting creative, and frankly, a lot more student-friendly. Admissions offices are creating one-click applications, waiving application fees, offering admission to high school seniors who haven't even applied, and recruiting students after the traditional May 1 deadline. Fee waivers in particular are having a real impact: during one month when fees were waived in New York state, a quarter of a million students applied to the State University of New York system, up 41% from the same period the year before. I am not sure if you have noticed but now the University of Michigan has an Early Decision option. This is an interesting development.  They get so many applications from students out of state, so ED absolutely helps with their early class creation.

None of this means college has become a guaranteed outcome, or that selectivity doesn't matter for specific programs or schools. But it does mean that the cultural narrative around admissions, the one that treats every applicant as if they're gunning for a spot at an Ivy League institution, is badly distorted. For most students applying to most schools, the odds are better than they've been in years, and institutions are actively working to lower the barriers to even starting the process.

So, if you’re a junior right now…

If you are someone who plans well ahead of time, give yourself a pat on the back; you are an exception. But to the rest, those of you who truly want to thrive in next year’s admission cycle, start treating summer as a runway, not a Netflix, boba run, a hot-summer-with-nothing-to-do staycation. Lock in your SAT/ACT testing timeline. Develop something real in an area you care about, but not for the resume, but because authentic depth reads differently than a last-minute made-up research project. Think honestly about where you actually want to be, geographically and culturally. Research the schools and spend time on creating a solid (realistic) college list.

• Reach Schools: These are schools that might be a stretch for you in terms of academic qualifications and acceptance rates. These schools are often highly selective, such as Ivy League institutions or those with low acceptance rates. While applying to these schools can be a gamble, it’s worth considering if they align with your goals.
• Target Schools: These are schools where your academic qualifications (GPA, test scores, etc.) are in line with the average admitted student. Target schools are where you have a strong chance of being admitted.
• Safety Schools: These schools are those where your academic profile significantly exceeds the average admitted student. While not guaranteed, you have a high likelihood of being admitted here. Having a few safety schools ensures that you have options if your other applications don’t work out.

In general, you should aim to apply to around 2-3 reach schools, 4-6 target schools, and 1-2 safety schools. This balance allows for a diversified range of outcomes and will give you the best chances of getting into schools that fit your needs. Moreover, each school will have at least 2-3 supplemental essays. If you need help writing your Personal Statement see this invaluable resource The Plot Twist Is You & Other Truths About Writing The College Essay

Nearly a third of prospective students say they’ve already removed colleges from their list for political or values-based reasons, but I want to add here, for financial reasons as well; those conversations are worth having with your family now rather than in April of senior year.