Amherst College Class of 2026 drops to 6.93% from 8% last cycle

You have a right to your opinion about not encouraging anyone to apply to Williams and similar schools. Nevertheless, I'm just reporting the weather. And the weather report shows that Ivy's, Elites, Private LACs are all facing the same problem which is extremely high demand and not enough seats to serve the all the students that want to be there. While you might think that academic performance is secondary, every admission officer at top schools would vehemently disagree with you. It still is the most important criteria. But lets be honest, top colleges have been a run like a private 3 ring circus for hundreds of years so this is nothing new. You need to audition for a part in the circus as a performer, you just can't have a 4.0 UWGPA and a 1600/36 test score and sit in the audience taking notes. Colleges expect you to engage, add something positive to the campus and be more than your gpa/test score. These days you need both.

I do think Amherst is doing more to level the playing field than most elite colleges by eliminating the preferential legacy admission practice. I do not think any of these schools will eliminate athletic recruitment however since they've been playing League Baseball since 1859 (163 years) and Football since 1884 (138 years). 1/3 of the school plays a varsity sport and 80% does a club or intramural one. 45% of Amherst student identify as POCs, 25% qualify for PELL Grants and Amherst admits many low income /first gen students through community service orgs. like Questbridge etc. What are you saying? These schools are not trying hard enough? Or are you just venting about higher education in America? It's true our public school K-12 and many public colleges are sub-par. Who's at fault for this, the private higher education machine?

You may be reporting the weather but meteorology is an imperfect science. If the Ivies admit at 4% and Amherst, Williams et al, admit at 7% that may seem like a meaningful difference (or not). The Ivies at least have many more spots to fill. The top tier of liberal arts colleges 400-600 per class. A majority of those are fill in ED with athletes etc. My point is just that these are not actually a viable option.

They are all facing high demand but it is a largely self-created problem as they encourage more and more applicants to further cement their position as desirable. There may be more applicants in the mix with the rise of PELL grants, Questbridge, and the recent performance of higher ed endowments which make need blind access more prevalent. That said, the continued shrinking of acceptance causes students to apply to more schools which only exacerbates the problem.

Your characterization of schools now (and then) as circuses requiring an audition is an excellent one however. It is pretty subjective however and the criteria is shifting and not entirely logical. PELL grants should be problematic for schools as they make admissions judgements on criteria with no standing in the law such as first generation students. Those are tax dollars folks.

Yes higher education in America is a problem. I am not certain private higher education is to blame. The market has always found a way to address opportunity. I agree that public school funding should be blended at the state level, distributed evenly and should not allow funding outside this funnel. It would serve as a de facto tax as wealthier areas had to pay more to return their zip codes to their standard. This would also hurt private higher ed but the playing field would be a little more level.