While student preference for online applications has increased dramatically since 1996, in the last two years this predilection has remained virtually unchanged. To provide some perspective, in 1996, 11 percent of students surveyed by StudentPoll reported a preference for an online application. By 2000, that figure had climbed to 43 percent of students, yet remained virtually unchanged in 2002 at 45 percent.

What is even more interesting is that while preference for online applications has steadily increased among college-bound high school students, the method used most often remains paper. In 1998, 95 percent of students reported actually using paper applications when they applied to college, 18 percent online applications, and 6 percent applications mailed back to institutions on disk. In 2000, 92 percent used paper applications and 38 percent indicated they had used online applications (multiple responses were accepted). In the most recent study, 89 percent of students applied to college via paper applications and 34 percent online. This represents no growth in the use of online applications over a two-year period.