<p>The thing to look at is the growth rate in the age range applying to college (which was the thrust of the question in the earlier thread that prompted me to post this here). I have no idea how the northeastern United States (the home region of the plurality of Harvard applicants) compares to my region as to whether the number of high school seniors is already declining or not. MOST students go to college within 500 miles of home, so that’s the first demographic constraint on any college’s enrollment figures. But, yeah, if the College Board can be persuaded to offer SAT I and SAT II testing all over China (I understand that test security is a very serious concern over there), then Harvard might see a HUGE increase in applications in a few years. Harvard’s no-merit-scholarship, full-ride-for-full-need financial aid policies act to dissuade some strong domestic students from applying (they take merit scholarships at non-Ivy-League colleges) but also provide a huge incentive for smart kids from poor countries to apply. As word gets out around the world, the quality of applicants (and maybe their quantity too) could still keep rising for quite a while.</p>