September 2025 Hot Topics
Teen Views on College and the Future; Trends in College Applications
A recent AP Poll reports that 6 in 10 teens say it’s very important to them to graduate from college. Girls especially describe college as a key step for accomplishing their life goals. The survey also asked teens about their views regarding possible challenges to reach life milestones and found that many believe it will be harder for them to own a home or reach a successful standard of living compared to their parents' generation. Read more here.
Common App data from last year’s application cycle shows a boost in overall college applicants, a more diverse applicant pool, and an increase in the number of students submitting test scores. For the 2024-2025 application, almost 1.5 million distinct first-year applicants applied to 1,097 member institutions using the Common App. That is a 5% increase from the previous year. Latino and Black students grew the fastest of all subgroups and Texas was the state with the most applicants followed by New York and California. Despite many colleges being test optional there was also an uptick in those including their test scores. Check out additional stats here.