Hundreds of volunteer hours, prestigious internships, and groundbreaking cancer research. For decades, this was what it seemed high school students needed in addition to straight A’s and high test scores to be accepted to good colleges and universities. 

But the tide is changing as the number of applicants declines, with many institutions lightening the admissions process to attract more candidates.

Recently, the Hechinger Report revealed that students applying to college this year have found the process easier despite its “anxiety inducing” reputation. To entice more applicants from a “declining pool of 18-year-olds,” colleges are introducing streamlined one-click applications, waiving application fees, extending automatic admission to high school seniors who haven’t even applied, and pushing recruitment beyond the traditional May 1 cutoff. 

Some schools are even pushing it further. Pace University was one of the 130 New York State colleges that waived their typical $50 to $90 application fees in October. Pace is also promising an additional $1,000 a year of financial aid to prospective students who visit the campus if they enroll. 

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On the West Coast, the California State University system (CSU)—which comprises 23 universities across California—is implementing a direct admissions program in which applicants are automatically admitted to 16 CSUs as long as they earn a “C” in a list of required high school courses. 

But were admissions typically so tough, and why are fewer students applying now?

For decades, colleges and universities have relied on a system that treats selectivity as a marker of prestige, attracting far more applicants than they can admit. College admissions are known to be so competitive because many institutions—especially those at the top of the food chain, such as Harvard and Yale—have limited seats, high demand, and reputations built on exclusivity. But fewer students are now entering the admissions pipeline, the result of declining birthrates since 2007 that have sharply reduced the number of 18-year-olds. (Demographers have warned for years that this “population cliff” would materialize in the fall of 2025). And that smaller pool of applicants is also increasingly skeptical of the payoff of higher education.

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Considering sharp tuition spikes, the growing tendency to “pass off” teaching to artificial intelligence (AI), and the persistence of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), decreasing applications and enrollment may be a wake-up call to universities: exorbitant tuition and an ever-expanding list of application demands no longer align with the quality of education they are offering.

Higher education must also reevaluate the knowledge, skills, and opportunities it provides students. Spending four years earning a degree only to end up in the unemployment line has become increasingly common. In fact, the unemployment rate for college grads is six percent—higher than the national average of four percent.

Making the admissions process less daunting won’t fix those structural problems in higher education. Instead, institutions must offer a higher-quality product that is actually worth a student’s investment.

In other words, build it, and they will come.

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