WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- A population-driven rise in the number of U.S. college applicants is increasing the competition for college admissions.
The Washington Post reported that the number of graduating high school seniors will peak in 2011 and drop slightly by 2016, figures from the U.S. Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics show.
At the same time, the percentage of students going to college will increase, experts predicted to the Post.
"The economic demand for a college education will only rise," David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, told the Post. "I do not think anyone should count on an admission environment that is any less crowded than the one that we are experiencing now."
Because the college admissions process has become so competitive, many high school seniors now apply to as many as 12 schools.
The most competitive colleges that reject more than half of the students that apply to them receive more than 28 percent of the total applications, Hawkins' group said to the Post.
