I am not sure the actual yield stats but I inferred that it was much higher simply due to the Kelley Admins shifting to a tougher pre-business threshold.
Business majors as a percentage of applicants in aggregate actually have been rather flat going back more than a decade so I don’t think that some expanding pie of applicants has much to do with it. I do think the common app and numbskull state level legislation like the Top 10% rule I deal with here in Texas has caused a lot of kids that normally would have stuck near home to cast a wider net and Kelley, with its brand name and rankings and association with an all around fun and respected university, is one of the first new looks for kids. The football team alone has peaked a lot of interest.
I was shaking my head at my son’s description of the Accounting 100 format, which seems purpose built to weed kids out. He said the class average for the first exam was in the low 70s, which was basically a dagger through the heart of the pre-business kids in that course.
In any event, IU has a very high class problem and I am a fan of the new approach. The purely quantitative criteria put in place by Universities like Texas A&M near me penalizes an enormous group of very talented kids at elite private schools and high quality publics while auto-admitting members of the poorest and least funded high schools in the State. That is not ideal.