BOSTON -- Soon-to-be high school graduates may be in for a tough spring.

Many middle-tier colleges, especially those in the Boston area, are sending out more rejection letters than ever.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that it is harder to get into colleges these days than it used to be because more are sending out rejection letters than they have in the past.

The reason is that more students are graduating from high schools and more are applying to colleges.

Schools in Massachusetts are also becoming more selective. An SAT score that would have secured an enrollment in the 1980s and 1990s may not do so any longer -- at either private or public colleges universities.

The Boston Globe reported that at Northeastern University, 39 percent of the students who applied were accepted this year, but that was a 16 percent decrease from 12 years ago. At Boston College, only 27 percent were accepted, which was 12 percent fewer than a decade ago. At the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, 62 percent were accepted, but that was still a 9 percent drop from in the past.

Some school counselors are telling students to apply to 9 or 10 schools instead of four or five so that they have backup schools from which to choose.