The Hardships of the Most Overlooked Generation

Opinion Writer

Recently, during my visit to Williams College, I conversed with a senior named David Wignall, who shared insightful observations about today's youth experience. He expressed a sentiment I hadn’t heard before: "We’re the generation turned away the most."

Examining college admissions sets this into perspective. In 1959, half of college applicants in America tried their luck at just one institution. Contrast this with today, where students feel compelled to apply to 20 to 30 schools, hoping to avoid blanket rejections. Among the 67 top-tier colleges, applications have tripled over the past 20 years, hitting nearly two million annually, without a similar growth in available spots. Harvard, as an example, received around 54,000 applications for its 2028 class, accepting only 1,950, leaving about 52,050 without a place.

This pattern extends to the summer internship hunt. Firms like Goldman Sachs offer 2,700 internships but attract about 315,000 hopefuls, rejecting around 312,300. I discussed with one student who experienced 39 rejections out of 40 applications. Others mentioned submitting 150 to 250 internship applications each season to ensure a mere handful might welcome them.

The challenge heightens once academic life concludes, and young adults enter the employment market, which increasingly resembles a maze of uncertainties. The ease of online job applications encourages mass submissions where countless candidates apply en masse, often slipping through the cracks of faceless algorithms. I've encountered stories of youth who applied for 400 roles without securing a single offer.

Today's landscape presents a complex web ostensibly designed to measure the worthiness of youth, only to frequently deem them inadequate.

To gain insight into the competitive climate these young individuals endure, I reached out to students and alumni from prestigious institutions, suspecting they might feel this exclusion most acutely. All confirmed the notion of being part of a 'most rejected generation' rang true.