You now have to excel in your academics and you have to excel either in athletics or the creative arts and community service. At the same time, teenagers are considering schools they once might have passed up, giving colleges access to a more geographically diverse pool. Michael Goldberger, director of college admissions at Brown, said institutions are better at getting information out to prospective students, and students, in turn, approach the application process with more seriousness and determination than they did 10 or 20 years ago. The Internet has made research easier and the country seem smaller, he said. They're in the pool, and they' re wonderful kids .
Students know that the odds favor disappointment.
They're looking for such little things on the application that can make you or break you. You can't let it consume you, because there's such a a high rate of rejection. Educators see more students taking SAT preparatory courses, and more are taking honors level and Advanced Placement, or AP, courses in high school. And there's a lot of discussion on class rank. The quest continues outside the classroom.