In 2021, a record high number of seniors were rejected from U.S. colleges in 2021. In fact, admission rates dropped over 34% among the 10 most competitive colleges in the United States. With the rise of test optional/test blind policies and online learning, college admissions were notably competitive this year.

What happened?
Many U.S. colleges this year experienced a surge in the number of applicants. Possibly, this can be attributed to the test optional/test blind policies implemented by colleges in the 2020/2021 year. This meant that students who previously believed they did not meet testing requirements began applying to these competitive colleges.

Moreover, the test optional policies that were in effect this year also created a trend, where students still ended up taking standardized tests, such as the SAT or ACT, but chose not to submit them to universities.

Did much change?
Despite the dramatic drop in acceptance rates, the number of accepted applicants remained relatively similar to other years, as the increase in the number of applicants were offset by the decrease in acceptance rates. However, it is still unclear how class sizes will compare with previous years due to other factors, such as the fact that more students are taking gap years and others are delaying admission.

Implications
For non–high schoolers, if you were accepted to a college's waitlist, it is now less likely for colleges to accept students from their waitlist due to the possibility of having an overflow of students on campus next year. Furthermore, chances are that class sizes will be larger than usual which could hinder student engagement by reducing the teacher to student ratio.

For current high schoolers, the future is still uncertain in terms of how colleges will respond to test optional/test blind policies that were implemented amidst the pandemic.