<p>It sounds like Middlebury received more applications in the past because they didn’t charge a fee for the ‘pre-application’ and then counted pre-apps as completed apps (even when they didn’t receive a completed application or fee). Zero percent of incomplete applications would have been accepted in the past. It sounds like past practice might just have contributed to their overall numbers without affecting the number of viable applications. Even with a drop in the number of applications, it doesn’t seem likely that Middlebury will be lowering its standards this year. There’s still a lot of cream at the top.</p>