<p>It’s not only the economy, because Rice’s applicant pool has been rising steadily for a number of years. But, yes, 21 to 24 percent would be quite a jump - last year’s big increase was 12 percent. (By the way, that “11,000” expected number in the story must be an error, because that was close to what they got last year.)</p>
<p>You wonder how effective something as seemingly trivial as a Princeton Review “quality of life” #1 ranking may have been.</p>