As spring rolls around, Irvington students, along with many students across the United States face excitement or disappointment upon receiving college results. The trends of college admissions have displayed an overall increase in selectivity as fully capable students have been turned down from elite universities. Despite the fact that rumors have always been present regarding the difficulty of college admission, statistics from the past years have proven that several factors have substantially contributed to increasing selectiveness.

A major concern that has been displayed is the increased difficulty of the UC system within the last few years. One of the driving factors is the increase in application rates due to an increase in graduates. The current generation graduating from college is approximately 1-1.5 million more people than less than around 5 years ago, according to the Department of Education. Additionally, the increase in haphazard applications, in other words, students applying just for fun, has significantly contributed to an increase in applications, and thus an increase in careful revision and selectivity on the admissions part. Additionally, as more students and families are in financially secure situations during the last decade, more students have been compelled to apply to college, no longer held back by hesitations due to costs. However, in terms of Irvington admissions, numerous students have reported seeing trends in college admissions that indicate increased selectivity than in years past. For example, students with GPAs of above a 4.0 were rejected from schools such as UCLA and UC Berkeley, leaving students confused as to by which basis college admissions were carried out. Additionally such trends at Irvington may be due to the negative stigma sometimes associated with Fremont schools.

“Fremont applicants, primarily from Mission and Irvington are screened and interviewed with caution, as students from such schools are often -times inclined to lie or over fabricate achievements and extracurriculars,” said Berkeley admissions associate who wishes to remain anonymous

“ College admissions year to year usually seem to be an accurate representation of a student’s performance throughout high school, however there are always some surprises due to the way in which the American college admission system works”(Yoo).