She may look calm, but honor student Katie Rogers is in the biggest battle of her teenage life, trying to get accepted to an ivy league school.
Katie: It's a life decision. It's a very, very important decision and especially in my high school, college and the top colleges are stressed very much.
An investment in the future that starts with considerable cost. At least 55 dollars for each of the 13 applications Katie sent out to schools like Princeton, Georgetown, Yale and Cornel. It's all about opportunity.
Ellen Brener （High School Guidance Counselor）: People also see it as an entry way to the best job, not just the best education. So that by going to the best school, you're probably going to have the best 1）access.
That's exactly why more students than ever from around the country and around the globe are sending a flood of applications to the America's most competitive colleges and universities.
Ellen Brener: You don't know what the admissions officers are going to see when they read your application and just the more schools you apply to, the better you have getting accepted.
But those chances are getting slimmer by the year. At Harvard, 18% of all applications were accepted in 1990. Last year, that number dropped to only 11%. The admission rate at Brown dropped from 23% to 16% over the past decade. And the University of Pennsylvania which accepted about 43% of all applicants ten years ago admitted only 23% last year.
Richard Shaw （Dean of Admission, Yale University）: They really are an amazing group of kids and the hardest part of this job is to have to say "no" to so many very, very qualified students.
This year a record breaking 14,600 people applied to get into Yale, for 1,300 slots in the 2）freshman class, that means students have a one in nine chance of making it.
And the odds may be even slimmer than the numbers indicate. Most elite schools look for an SAT score above 1,400. Students who were in the top ten percent of their class and who have challenged themselves with difficult classes. But even that's no guarantee.
William Shain （Vanderbilt University）: For the most competitive colleges in the country, it does seem that being perfect is no longer good enough. The number of students with 800s on each SAT who don't get into the most selective colleges in the country is highest it's been.
And the rules about what top colleges want have changed 3）dramatically. In the past, schools courted only 4）well-rounded students who excelled at most everything. Not any more.
Michelle Hernandez （College Consultant）: The trend has really shifted, and now they're very much looking for students who are very focused in a couple of areas and perhaps reach national level. Someone who reaches the Olympics or even their academic field like a debate.
Author and college consultant Michelle Hernandez, who wrote "A is for admission the insider's guide for getting into the ivy league", is a Dartmouth grad who also worked in admissions there for years. She says never believe college admission rates. Your odds of getting in are actually much slimmer.
Michelle Hernandez: Out of 100% of the class they're admitting, a full 40% of every ivy league and other highly selective college is taken up by specialty groups, so you've got maybe 17-20% of recruited athletes. That's a huge percentage of the class. You've got another maybe 5-10% of minority applicants. You've got legacy applicants, meaning that their parents went to that school. You've got VIP or development cases, which are either sons and daughters of famous people, or ones who give an extraordinary high amount of money to the college.
That leaves 60% of the class for students outside those categories. Admission counselors say they read each of the thousands of applications at least twice, and have had to expand staff to handle the growing demand. But the fierce competition at the so-called selective colleges doesn't apply everywhere.
Ellen Brener: There's plenty of room for kids in most places, and we see that once you get beyond the most selective schools there are wonderful schools out there. Good places for all of our kids.
William Shain: There is no university in this country, not even Vanderbuilt which I think is wonderful, that has a 5）monopoly in turning out the people who matter.
That's the first college lesson, Katie Rogers has learned.
Katie: I'm confident that wherever I'm accepted, I'll get a good education, I won't be, you know, short-changed in terms of academics.
1） access通道，入門(mén)
2） freshman大學(xué)一年級(jí)學(xué)生
3） dramatically大幅地，戲劇性地
4） well-rounded多方面有能力的
5） monopoly壟斷
Katie: It's a life decision. It's a very, very important decision and especially in my high school, college and the top colleges are stressed very much.
An investment in the future that starts with considerable cost. At least 55 dollars for each of the 13 applications Katie sent out to schools like Princeton, Georgetown, Yale and Cornel. It's all about opportunity.
Ellen Brener （High School Guidance Counselor）: People also see it as an entry way to the best job, not just the best education. So that by going to the best school, you're probably going to have the best 1）access.
That's exactly why more students than ever from around the country and around the globe are sending a flood of applications to the America's most competitive colleges and universities.
Ellen Brener: You don't know what the admissions officers are going to see when they read your application and just the more schools you apply to, the better you have getting accepted.
But those chances are getting slimmer by the year. At Harvard, 18% of all applications were accepted in 1990. Last year, that number dropped to only 11%. The admission rate at Brown dropped from 23% to 16% over the past decade. And the University of Pennsylvania which accepted about 43% of all applicants ten years ago admitted only 23% last year.
Richard Shaw （Dean of Admission, Yale University）: They really are an amazing group of kids and the hardest part of this job is to have to say "no" to so many very, very qualified students.
This year a record breaking 14,600 people applied to get into Yale, for 1,300 slots in the 2）freshman class, that means students have a one in nine chance of making it.
And the odds may be even slimmer than the numbers indicate. Most elite schools look for an SAT score above 1,400. Students who were in the top ten percent of their class and who have challenged themselves with difficult classes. But even that's no guarantee.
William Shain （Vanderbilt University）: For the most competitive colleges in the country, it does seem that being perfect is no longer good enough. The number of students with 800s on each SAT who don't get into the most selective colleges in the country is highest it's been.
And the rules about what top colleges want have changed 3）dramatically. In the past, schools courted only 4）well-rounded students who excelled at most everything. Not any more.
Michelle Hernandez （College Consultant）: The trend has really shifted, and now they're very much looking for students who are very focused in a couple of areas and perhaps reach national level. Someone who reaches the Olympics or even their academic field like a debate.
Author and college consultant Michelle Hernandez, who wrote "A is for admission the insider's guide for getting into the ivy league", is a Dartmouth grad who also worked in admissions there for years. She says never believe college admission rates. Your odds of getting in are actually much slimmer.
Michelle Hernandez: Out of 100% of the class they're admitting, a full 40% of every ivy league and other highly selective college is taken up by specialty groups, so you've got maybe 17-20% of recruited athletes. That's a huge percentage of the class. You've got another maybe 5-10% of minority applicants. You've got legacy applicants, meaning that their parents went to that school. You've got VIP or development cases, which are either sons and daughters of famous people, or ones who give an extraordinary high amount of money to the college.
That leaves 60% of the class for students outside those categories. Admission counselors say they read each of the thousands of applications at least twice, and have had to expand staff to handle the growing demand. But the fierce competition at the so-called selective colleges doesn't apply everywhere.
Ellen Brener: There's plenty of room for kids in most places, and we see that once you get beyond the most selective schools there are wonderful schools out there. Good places for all of our kids.
William Shain: There is no university in this country, not even Vanderbuilt which I think is wonderful, that has a 5）monopoly in turning out the people who matter.
That's the first college lesson, Katie Rogers has learned.
Katie: I'm confident that wherever I'm accepted, I'll get a good education, I won't be, you know, short-changed in terms of academics.
1） access通道，入門(mén)
2） freshman大學(xué)一年級(jí)學(xué)生
3） dramatically大幅地，戲劇性地
4） well-rounded多方面有能力的
5） monopoly壟斷