Colleges Chasing Potential Students

We're a Good Option, Lesser-Knowns Say

As soon as three seniors got near the Trinity Washington University table at a Ballou Senior High School college fair, George Walls pounced.

"You want to study forensics? You like criminal justice?" the Trinity associate director of admissions asked, lobbing ideas like tennis balls. "How would you like to do an internship at the CIA? The FBI? The Department of Homeland Security?"

He fixed them with a look. "Do I have an application from you yet?"

Ialisha Morrison and her friends shook their heads no. They had never heard of the private women's college in Northeast Washington.

Walls opened a brochure and pointed to a photo. "Look at this campus! Does that look like a city campus to you? It's 26 acres of fields, trees, squirrels, fountains -- see the squirrel?"

They giggled, and he told them about how much financial aid Trinity gives. "It's what we call the love. You know what that is? When you pull up at the drive-through, order a Number 7 and they supersize it! That's the love."

All that love is the flip side of the college admissions frenzy. Many of the most prestigious schools are swamped with record numbers of applications, making top students curse the odds this winter. But for everyone else -- all the students applying to more-typical schools -- there's no need to worry so much.

It's harder to get into the most selective colleges than it was five or 10 years ago, said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, in part because of an unusually large population of high school seniors sending out more applications, driving up numbers of candidates and forcing admission rates down.

But the bigger picture is that there are thousands of colleges in the United States, and many are open to almost anyone with a high school diploma.

On average, U.S. colleges accept about seven of every 10 applicants, Hawkins said. "It's not really all that difficult to get into a four-year college now."

That's why counselors are always trying to reassure stressed-out students: Don't get hung up on one or two big-name universities. Apply to a range of schools. Find the places that fit you and your interests. You'll be fine.

Or as Trinity's president, Patricia McGuire, put it, "There is a place for everyone who wants to come."