Collegiate shock: Top applicants are rejected

It's becoming known as the College Admissions Squeeze: the bestand brightest of high school students applying to top universitiesbut not getting accepted.

"It hurts," said Jordan Labkon, 18, a Glenview public highschool student who described his reaction to being turned downrecently by Ivy League Princeton.

"I've spent four years in an intense academic program in highschool," said Labkon, a senior at Glenbrook High School South. "Ihave four years of Russian . . . a combined 1,350 SAT score . . .four years on the tennis team . . . and I rank fourth in a class of560 kids.

"I thought kids from an academic program like ours would betaken into Princeton."

And while Labkon is bewildered, he's luckier than many otherstudents this month, when acceptance letters typically go out. Hedid get a nod from the equally prestigious University ofPennsylvania, where he plans to study international relations.

The rub is that top colleges are turning down scholars who wouldhave been accepted in years past. There appear to be severalreasons.

Competition is stiffer because more students from diversifiedbackgrounds are applying to selective schools such as the Universityof Chicago, Princeton, Harvard and Northwestern. Not just theurbane, big-city students are seeking these schools, but theircountry cousins as well, experts say.

Another reason is that anxious students now apply to many morecolleges in hope of hitting the jackpot somewhere. At New Trier EastHigh School in Winnetka, for example, 190 students each applied tosix or more colleges in 1983, while 326 did so this year.

The number of college applications has increased markedly, whilethe number of 18-year-olds in the nation has been declining.

Carol Lunkenheimer, Northwestern University admissions director,cited a 27 percent increase in applications during the last twoyears.

"Why with less 18-year-olds do we have more college applicants?"she mused. "Evidently more people are going to college, and thosepeople are applying to more colleges each."

This year, 11,500 students applied to Northwestern.

Only 4,700 have been admitted, and another 300 are on a waitinglist.

"There are about 50 to 100 colleges that everyone wants to goto, the selective, competitive schools," Lunkenheimer said. "We'redisappointing so many people," she said, referring to calls andletters from people upset about their rejections.

That sentiment is being echoed in college admissions officesacross the nation as well as across town.

At the University of Chicago, undergraduate admissions directorTheodore O'Neill said his school experienced a 25 percent increase inapplicants this year.

"There have been kids who are first in their class who haven't been admitted (to the University of Chicago)," O'Neill said. "Itmeans that siblings in families, who are much like their siblingsalready here, have not been admitted. That's a painful thing to haveto do."

And high school guidance counselors are throwing up their hands.

"It's getting harder and harder to predict who is going to beaccepted," said Jane Koten, college counselor at Glenbrook South inGlenview. "There's more chance in it than before."

Katie Sieck, 17, the top-ranked senior student at Oak Park-RiverForest High School, said she was turned down by Harvard despitecombined SAT scores of 1,300. She said she is not disturbed,however, because she will attend the University of Chicago, her firstchoice and the school that she says fits her needs.

"I have a friend who was turned down by Stanford, her firstchoice, and that's probably ruined the closing part of her senioryear," Sieck said. "We all have dreams of getting our first choice,but that's not always possible."