If you’ve been out of college more than a decade, face it; you probably couldn’t get into your alma mater this year. There’s no way I could get accepted at my school — average SAT scores 700 and a GPA of 12. Get real! Experts say we’ve just finished the most competitive college admissions season ever.

The changing market for recruiting college applicants has all kinds of implications for the future workforce. But for starters it provides valuable insights for employers who want to find and land the best candidates to grow their business.

• Is your recruiting geographically diverse enough to reach candidates who might really want to work for you?

Part of what has made the college market so competitive is the surge in international applications. Foreign students are going crazy for American schools. But you don’t have to go abroad for recruits. Just look farther afield. Hospitals in Florida and Arizona have learned they can place ads in newspapers in northern cities right after major snowstorms to entice winter weary nurses to relocate. Nursing executives in Detroit must hate those Tucson hospitals.

• Could changes in your competitors’ hiring practices affect your success in recruiting top talent?

When Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia all eliminated early admissions programs, fewer top applicants applied to binding early-action programs in other elite schools. That’s because they wanted to be able to take a shot at Harvard (6% acceptance rate–good luck!).  For all Ivy League schools this change has helped make the application process less efficient and more costly.

I always advise clients that even if you don’t have an aging workforce problem, or major growth plans, watch your competitors or other major employers nearby. Where will they go for great employees when aging boomers finally retire, or when major growth initiatives create a sudden demand for skilled talent? When it comes to recruiting, know who your real competitors are and monitor what’s happening to their recruiting processes and talent base.

• Are you a “hot employer”?

Brown University just had 31,000 applications for a class of 1,500 students. USC, Occidental and Tulane are other extremely popular schools right now. Of course, not everyone can be Apple or Google on the “great places to work” scale. If you’re not, what are you doing to land the best recruits you can? Accepting candidates is one thing. But watching colleges try to close the deal on accepted students can provide some great ideas for landing top talent that’s being courted elsewhere. Buy a beer for an admissions officer at your local college or university and take notes. Even if their accepted candidates don’t have SAT scores north of 700 and ridiculous GPAs, you’ll be amazed at the efforts schools make to close the deal. And in less than four years these kids may be applying to your company. Will you be ready to land the best talent from the class of 2015?

If you’re a top executive and you’re wondering how prepared your organization is for the rapidly emerging talent crunch, see our new book The Executive Guide to High-Impact Talent Management from McGraw-Hill. It’s got plenty of techniques for engaging your HR department in a more collaborative discussion on effective recruiting.