As many of my classmates and I have noticed, admissions seem to be unusually competitive this year. No one expects to get into every school, but when students get into few of their choices, it's surprising. Everyone I know seems to have gotten an unexpected amount of thin white envelopes.

We're not imagining it:

My theory is there had to have been an increase in births in 1988. Whether or not that is true, nearly every college I received an acceptance or a rejection letter from boasted their significant increase in applicants this year. Columbia received 19,730 applications this year, a 9% increase from last year and a record high. 20,300 students applied to the University of Pennsylvania this year, an 8% increase. Even the University of Vermont saw an increase to 18,000 applicants, a record high for the university. Harvard, however, saw its applicant pool hold steady, declining from 22,796 applications last year to 22,719 this year.

Others attribute these changes to a too-easy admissions process that encourages students to apply to more colleges without much interest in the schools. The Common Application allows you to compile one application, photocopy it, and send it to as many schools as will accept it. Or do the entire process online. Many colleges also offer even easier applications. VIP applications are offered to some students from many universities: They permit students to disregard the application fee or even the application essay. Next year, the Common App will do away with the paper application, making it so that all students, with the click of a mouse on a check box, can send their applications off to as many colleges as they desire. I had thought my seven schools was an excessive number, until a coworker told me she applied to fifteen.

With this many applicants, it is impossible for colleges to accept every qualified student. I think this generated a lot of headaches and heartache problems, with many being rejected or waitlisted to their top-choice, incredibly prestigious schools. Yale's acceptance rate dropped to 8.6%. Dartmouth accepted a record low of 15.4% applicants. Brown took only 13.8% of their never before seen 18,313 applicants.

When barely 9% of an applicant pool can be accepted, it's impossible for anyone to feel confident about being accepted by their first-choice school. The prospect of not attending Harvard or Yale next fall may be be a horrifying thought for some, but it is the reality for most of us. College websites and message boards, such as collegeconfidential.com have been bombarded by the wails of students who believe their lives have ended now that the Ivies don't want them.

But, there are many options left that can give any student a quality education if that is what they want. The "public Ivies," which include UC-Berkeley and UNC-Chapel Hill, provide academic opportunities to their students equivalent to any private Ivy League school. Many small liberal arts schools, which are scattered throughout the country, may be a better fit than a large Ivy League school, where huge classes may be taught primarily by graduate assistants. Public universities, even those that haven't gained the title "public ivy," are usually more financially feasible for the average student, and many offer honors programs that can enrich the curriculum of especially successful applicants.

When students with Advance Placement and International Baccalaureate backgrounds, 2000+ SAT scores, and extracurricular success enter, not the halls of Harvard or Brown, but rather those of state universities and small liberal arts schools, the schools will benefit from their presence.

For those of us who have had it ingrained in us that we're exceptional our entire academic careers, these rejections are blows to our egos, and it's tempting to feel we've wasted our time and energy working toward a seemingly unattainable goal. But, at this point, I'm just happy I can say it's over.

Liz Petow, co-editor-in-chief of The Bengal Beat at St. Mary's Academy, Bay View, in Riverside, R.I., will be attending the University of Vermont next year.

Related: Stanford Daily: Seniors post college rejection letters at local high school