Last week, college applicants around the world must have received their envelopes of acceptance and would have deservedly jumped with joy. However, these applicants are way luckier than they realize, as the acceptance rates around the world in top colleges continue to show a downward curve.

As the trend has been lately, Harvard, Columbia and Stanford yet again reflected lower acceptance rate for the 2011 school year compared to 2010, according to the “First Look 2011 Admission Decision”

One of the major explanations for the acceptance rates steadily going down may be found in the basic concepts of Demand & Supply;  the number of applicants to colleges with every passing year goes up, while the number of seats remains more or less the same. Harvard tops this list by the huge volume of 35,000 applications received in 2011 and a record low 6.17% acceptance rate. The school saw a 13.8% decrease in the rate compared to 7.16% last year. Harvard is observing high inflation in the number of applicants every year but has no plans to increase the class size – which obviously means the per-seat-demand goes up and the acceptance rates keep going down.

Next in the list with 6.9% admit rate is Columbia which has come down from 9.2% last year. Columbia’s decision to accept the common application for the first time was the  main factor for the huge number of 34,929 applicants. Third in line is Stanford University with 34,348 applicants and a 7.07% admit rate.

Here’s a tabular look at how the acceptance rates show for various colleges in 2011:

University 2011 Total

Applicants

 2011 Number of Students

Accepted

 2011 Acceptance Rate 2010 Total

Applicants

 2010 Number of Students

Accepted

 2010 Acceptance Rate
Harvard 34,950 2,158 6.17% 30,489 2,184 7.16%
Columbia 34,929 2,419 6.93% 26,178 2,397 9.16%
Stanford 34,348 2,427 7.07% 32,022 2,340 7.31%
Yale 27,282 2,006 7.35% 25,869 2,039 7.88%
Princeton 27,189 2,282 8.39% 26,247 2,311 8.80%
Brown 30,946 2,692 8.70% 30,135 2,804 9.30%
Dartmouth 22,385 2,178 9.73% 18,778 2,165 11.53%
Wharton 31,659 3,880 12.26% 26,940 3,840 14.25%
Cornell 36,392 6,534 17.95% 36,338 6,673 18.36%

The only two exceptions to this ‘Law of diminishing acceptance’ seem to be Princeton; which has had a record setting application number for the past seven years (8.39% from 8.8% ) and Cornell; the largest Ivy League School (17.95% from 18.3%)- both with a difference less than half a percent in the numbers from last year and this year.

So, while course curriculum and the content become increasingly difficult for students to master in any top college around the world, whether at the under graduate or post graduate level, it’s clear that the hardest part still remains getting in.