Wesleyan may be the most popular LAC application this year. Time will tell what this means for their yield rate. A combination of application numbers and yield rate will say more about their real popularity. The Wesleyan blog article seems a bit disingenuous - not only is this the 2nd year Wesleyan has been test optional, but perhaps more importantly, Wesleyan eliminated any supplemental essays this year. Eliminating the supplements is a well used strategy of schools looking to increase their application numbers across all spectrum of students. Not only can it encourage the first generation college kids who may not have lots of resources and advisors, but it encourages the casual “why not” applications from kids who have all the advantages and may have their true sights set on the ivy’s or Amherst or Williams. Kids who were deferred from their first choice LAC or ivy in mid December found it very easy to simply submit one more very quick & easy application to Wesleyan this year. In contrast, colleges that want to improve their yield rates often add supplement questions - requiring even short supplement questions is thought to weed out those kids who are not serious about a school. Wesleyan seems to be playing with their numbers here.