<p>I think both reputation and class size of an institution will mainly affect the application number, here is my reason.
- Reputation
Historically Duke is a more or less bigger name than Columbia, Upenn, UChicago and some other peers. Duke has an overall rating at 6.3 (average U.S. News & World Report rankings during 1983 to 2007), while UChicago has a 10.6. (FYI: Harvard at 1.7, Princeton at 2.1, Yale at 2.4, Stanford at 4.3, MIT at 5.5, Columbia at 10.4, Upenn at 10.1). Duke is so-called Southern Harvard, even though UChicago is catching up in last 4 years, with #5, and top 9 in last year’s U.S. News & World Report list, Duke is #10 and top 10 in that list. - Class size
Duke has an anticipated class size: 1700, while UChicago has an anticipated 1350. Class size is playing an important role attracting applications. For example, Northwestern University has an anticipated class size 2025, for almost every year, NWU received larger number of applications than UChicago did.</p>