On the flip side if fewer kids apply because they did their due diligence to colleges that are realistic “good fits” for them and showed significant interest by having to complete an in-depth application; applications would go down as yields would most definitely go up as only the most serious applicants would be applying.
I just see the complete waste of time of college resources and applicant money that a UCLA for example has to do to review 110,000 applicantions for 5,900 freshman. That’s 100K+ applicants that will never set foot on UCLA campus. This doesn’t even factor in 20,000 potential transfer students applications. Just seems like there could be a more targeted, efficient and refined process…