Consider scoring 2,310 on the SAT and earning a 3.9 grade-point average in high school, winning international artistic awards, and having extensive volunteer experience. Many students rated this highly normally would be considered good candidates to get into Harvard — but not this year.

Many students who in previous years would have gone to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Duke, or MIT are getting rejection letters from these and other highly ranked colleges. Some students are facing tough choices. Others didn’t get into any of their preferred colleges, and are having to decide whether to take a gap year or enroll in community college and try again next year.

“Uncertainty is the word to describe this year,” said Dave Hawkins of the National Association of College Admission Counseling. This year has been the hardest college admissions year ever, and it has shown in a previously unimaginable level of competition for coveted spaces in the top colleges’ accepted lists.

A major part of the shift is caused by demographics. According to Dean of Admissions Christopher Gruber, Davidson College experienced a 10.5 percent increase in applications over 2007. The Class of 2008 is the largest class of high school graduates ever, triggering many more applications for a limited number of college admission spots. According to the CDC, 1990, the year today’s high school seniors were born, produced the highest number of births since 1962. One theory is that 1990 represents an “echo” of the peak of the baby boom in 1957, making this the most competitive year yet for college admissions.

Another factor contributing to the selectivity of top colleges this year has been a shift in college application strategies employed by seniors. According to the Higher Education Research Institute, between 1990 and 2006 the number of college freshmen who had applied to seven or more schools nearly doubled, from just over 9 percent to 18 percent of applicants. The result is that, on average, each individual student is holding a higher number of offers and must choose between them, decreasing colleges’ yield, or the number of students enrolling out of an admitted pool, and increasing uncertainty for the school as well as the student.

Students are also applying to more colleges because of the demise of Early Decision programs at several schools. Most top-ranked universities offer early admission to students who will commit to enroll if admitted. Typically, the colleges admit a larger percentage of this group, knowing they will attend, unlike regular decision applicants who might be deciding between several competing schools.

Sally Rubenstone, senior advisor at College Confidential, a nationally known college consulting firm, said that “changes to early-decision and early-action policies at a few highly visible colleges” — among them were Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia — “added an extra dose of panic to a process that is already rife with it.” Many students applied to more top-tier schools to ensure admission at the level they had targeted. The surge in applications translates back to lower yield, and it will be very interesting to see whether these schools reinstate early decision and early action in the future.

Even this isn’t enough to explain the most recent phenomena. Harvard University admitted an all-time low of 7.1 percent of applicants this year. In a typical year, Ivy League schools might collectively admit a handful of the best students off their waitlists. This year, some have sent offers of admission to more than 250.

What caused this strange shift in policies? “Harvard really wanted to be ‘the most selective school’, so they under-accepted and then went to the wait-list,” says Michele Hernandez, founder and president of HernandezCollegeConsulting.com. “It really wasn’t fair.”

The world of college admissions is changing rapidly, and those who do not keep up will be left behind. Parents and guidance counselors must be aware that assumptions based on when they were in school might not hold true in today’s ultra-competitive admissions process.

“The only thing in college admissions that is the same as a generation ago, or even five years ago with older siblings, is that still one student will go to one college,” said Bill Pruden, head of the Upper School at The Ravenscroft School, a top-ranked Raleigh private school.

Every student can still find a college home. If they do not pay attention, though, it might not be where they expect.

John C. Young is a contributing editor of Carolina Journal.