The correlation between pressure and the college admissions process has seemingly become more and more competitive regarding top-tier universities; with declining acceptance rates and increasing anxiety, academic-oriented students appear to be willing to do anything to ensure their acceptance. In a recent survey conducted by The Princeton Review, 73% of students expressed their stress toward the college application process. In the same survey, the same students chose the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard College, and Stanford University as their dream colleges. The schools’ respective common data sets from 2024-2025 signified an average of a 3.94% acceptance rate. 

According to Yale Daily News, a Yale student was expelled for fabricating portions of her college application. She allegedly falsified it by altering her name, ethnicity, and hometown. Katherina Lynn was a freshman at Davenport College, one of Yale’s twelve residential colleges, before her admission was fully revoked and she was escorted off of campus in fall of 2025. 

According to The New York Post, the fraudulence was caught on to over a month following the Class of 2029’s arrival to the school. Lynn’s luggage tags were discovered, only to reveal that they had a completely different name and address written on them.

In an interview with Air Mail, Lynn said that she was convinced that her average grades and Chinese-American roots would decrease her chances of acceptance. Rather than continuing to study for improved grades, she decided to falsify her entire identity. She allegedly even went to lengths such as legally changing her name, purposefully skipping her high school graduation, and erasing any existence of her life prior to her admission to Yale. The lengths Lynn went to can be viewed as part of a broader trend of decreasing acceptance rates to more competitive universities and the stress brought upon applicants by them.

According to the California Institute of Technology’s 2024-2025 common data set, a nearly record-low acceptance rate of around 2.57% was seen during this academic year, whereas it was roughly 3.14% during the 2023-2024 academic year. This is becoming a rapidly increasing common trend throughout top-tier schools.
As the most prestigious universities become further selective, some applicants, such as Lynn, have reportedly taken great measures to ensure they get into their dream colleges.