I think trends in a school’s popularity are hard to determine. I believe The Princeton Review started their “Hopes and Worries” national survey in 2007, and at that time UCLA placed #10 on students’ “Dream School” rankings, and didn’t even make the top 10 for parents’ “Dream School” rankings. This year UCLA placed #5 with students and #7 with parents. Why? Who knows.
(If you are interested in seeing where other schools place I would just look it up, I don’t want to turn this forum into a debate stage again.)